The Most Comprehensive and User-Friendly Adult Telephone Triage Protocols on the Market – From a Pioneer in the Field

By Sheila Wheeler, RN, MS McGraw-Hill, 2009

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Written by Sheila Wheeler, one of the world’s leading experts in telephone triage, this working decision support reference provides the guidelines nurses need for the safe, effective, and fast disposition of 1,000+ health related problems by telephone.

Organized by site and written in lay language, the guidelines eliminate the extra step of “translating” in lay language home treatment, first aid, or self-assessment instructions. A solid nursing process-based strategy incorporates the critical thinking skills. This critical thinking process mimics how nurses naturally solve problems in “real world” situations.

Features

This “6 in 1” product is packed with everything you need to implement a telephone triage program:

1. Protocols - wide-range of common diseases including Women’s Health
2. Standards – Comprehensive practice standards for practitioners and programs
3. Documentation Form – enhances proper procedure and risk management
4. Users Guide • A 40-page User’s Guide for Protocol Competency
5. CD-ROM – contains 10 case studies for Training discussion and analysis
6. Continuing Education -An accompanying website to earn CE credit online

Related CE course: Protocol Competency

The protocols were designed to meet current standards for decision support:

• If followed, the guidelines will lead to standard outcomes
• If given the same data, different groups of nurses would produce the same dispositions
• They guidelines explicitly state the populations to which they apply
• User's Guide contains complete operating instructions, including underlying assumptions and exceptions to recommendations
• They are written in unambiguous language, using precisely defined terms in an easy to follow mode of presentation

Unique Features

The unique design is a synthesis of both algorithm and pattern recognition, which mimics the brain's natural problem. The protocols help solve problems by utilizing a symptom recognition/matching strategy. This "real world" approach to decision-making has been validated by medical decision expert Vimla Patel in her research of telephone triage nurses practicing in the ED setting.

The integrated form fosters thorough documentation and risk management by facilitating the collection of key information and adherence to the nursing process. This reduces common pitfalls: inadequate data collection, jumping to conclusions, and selection of the wrong protocol.

A Contingency or "fall back" protocol supports nurses with generic descriptions of common emergent, urgent, acute and non-acute problems, in cases where existing protocols may not apply.

Well-integrated symptom presentation The symptom complex for myocardial infarct, for example, is represented in eight different protocols - abdomen, back, chest, extremity, vomiting, dizziness, neck, jaw - to help you if problems present in less typical ways, which they often do.

Quick and easy to use The guidelines are detailed enough to assure confidence in your decision-making yet concise enough to eliminate excessive and time-consuming page turning and cross-referencing.

Authoritative The protocols were collaboratively developed over a two-year period by a task force of twenty expert-level nurses, nurse practitioners and physicians, offering a multidisciplinary perspective.

Easy on your budget Electronic protocols can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even "growing your own" paper protocols is extremely time consuming and expensive. This six-in-one manual has it all, and is extremely cost effective - an investment worth its weight in gold!