Free Telephone Triage Resources:

Protocols, Guidelines,

Clinical Course Materials, Research

Telehealth Nursing & Telephone Triage Clinical Articles, Slides, Case Studies, Tutorials, QA Audit, Process Workflow,

NURSE TRIAGE RESOURCES (30 Items)

Privacy Policy. DOWNLOAD RESOURCES FOR FREE

A SUMMARY

Please download free resources — triage documents and books. No registration or email address required. This unique, innovative nurse-developed and nurse -driven triage system is comprised of “4 in 1” package contains a complete, basic triage program to improve patient safety. The four main components represent “layers of protection” (Robert Smith, JD) — evidence of the clinical “duty of due care” — a commitment to decrease malpractice risk. Privacy Policy.

PLEASE NOTE: CONTENT ON THIS PAGE IS STILL IN PROCESS. ALL UPDATES WILL BE COMPLETE IN EARLY 2026.

  1. Protocols & Guidelines (45- 50) address emergent to non-urgent Adult, School Age & Infant-Child symptom patterns (1,000+).

  2. Documentation Form - ensures proper documentation, communications & risk management

  3. Training Materials include:

    • 30-page Users Guide – Unique and complete with insightful FAQs.

    • Audiolinks to 20 real life malpractice case studies with tutorials for discussion & analysis

    • Five key clinical articles addressing How to Perform nurse triage including Risk Management Issues in reote nurse triage

  4. Standards – Basic nurse triage practice standards, including nurse triage job qualifications, job description and practice standards.

TRIAGE NURSE SYSTEM COMPONENTS & EXEMPLARS (27)

  • AGE-BASED, 5-LEVEL TRIAGE PROTOCOLS & GUIDELINES (3 VOLUMES)

  • UPDATED TRIAGE SYSTEM COMPONENTS (7)

  • CLINICAL TRIAGE TRAINING ARTICLES , AUDIO LINKS (6)

  • MALPRACTICE CASE STUDIES WITH TUTORIALS (AUDIOLINKS) (20+)

  • SLIDE DECKS OF TRIAGE TOPICS (4)

  • FIRST BASIC “HOW TO” TRIAGE TRAINING MANUAL FOR NURSES

Telephone Triage Resources

A Nursing Process-Based System

All RESOURCES MAY BE DOWNLOADED FOR FREE —- Privacy Policy

Telephone Triage System Components

  1. Telephone Triage Workflow Process(2015-2025) Nurse triage requires estimating, then classifying symptom urgency. Nurse Triage Process Workflow is a Framework that broadly but succinctly outlines the Triage Task — Process, Structure and Outcome with 5-level triage. Deceivingly simple in appearance, it represents how the basic nursing process (assessment, working diagnosis, plan, evaluation) can be adapted to remote triage.

    Please Note: Current HIPAA privacy policy is inadvertently impeding the the fourth step of the nursing process — evaluation. Also known in triage as outcome feedback (learning about patients’ diagnosis after on-site evaluation), it is missing on the Workflow Process form. Revising this policy for remote triage enables clinicians to learn from decisions —successful or unsuccessful — helping to improve clinical practice. Of all nursing subspecialties, remote triage requires outcome feedback. Remote triage should not take place in a vacuum defined as “breakdowns in processes, communication, technology, or resources leading to preventable patient harm”. (PDF-2.3 MB)

  2. Telephone Triage Universal Guideline (2025-2026) Triage Checklist Template based on Nurse Triage Process Workflow key safety features (PDF-201KB)X

  3. Telephone TriageQA AUDIT(2025-2026) Nurse triage performance improvement review. Quality Assurance of Triage Process (PDF-147 KB)

  4. Telephone Triage Rules of Thumb (Heuristics) (2025-2026) Nurses use Rules of Thumb to perform triage (Lephrohon, Patel 1995) (PDF-182 KB)

  5. Telephone Triage Documentation Form(1993-2026) A foundational documentation tool faithfully represents the nursing process –modified for triage. The missing fourth step–evaluation or patient outcome will require modified HIPAA regulations. EMR/EHR’s prospective role in synthesizing patient context —risk level — based on Predictive Analytics of past & current medical history (PDF-692 KB)

  6. Telephone TriageJob -Qualifications, -Description & -Competencies (2025-2026)(PDF-781 KB)

  7. Care for Caregiver (1993-2025): Stress Reduction, Job Satisfaction for High Stress Task (2025) (PDF-66 KB)

  8. Telephone Triage-Specific Phone Tree (2000-2025) Avoid “Triage Volume Overload” (PDF-35 KB)

  9. Patient Brochure for Telephone Triage Services (1993- 2025) How to Help the Triage Nurse Help You” (PDF-72 KB)

    Clinical Training Resources for Telephone Triage

  10. Essentials for Telephone Triage‍ ‍(2025) Nurse Triage “How To” Course (PDF-505KB) 

  11. Telephone Triage Risk Management 3 (2020-2026) Pending Research, Standards, Case studies(PDF-954KB)

  12. Telephone Triage Guideline Competency (2017)  First User’s Guide for Nurse Triage Guidelines (PDF-6.6MB) 

  13. Telephone TriageRisk Management 1‍ ‍(2005) Triage trends, risks, controversies & case studies. (PDF-1MB)

  14. Telephone Triage Risk Management 2(2006) Experts discuss nurse triage risks & solutions. (PDF-800KB)

    Telephone Triage Training Slide Decks

    Slide decks collectively address current risk management issues, system error, common practice error leading to malpractice and near misses.

  15. Telephone Triage: Creating a Culture of Safety (2020) Risk Management (PDF-372 KB)

  16. Telephone Triage Protocols for High Risk Populations(2019) Protocol Design, Bhopal India (PDF-241 KB)

  17. To Err is Human, To Delay is Deadly (2012 - 2025) Risk Management. case studies (PDF-372 KB)

  18. Telephone Triage Essentials for Expert Practice (2016 - 2025) Slides for updated “How To” article (PDF-590KB)

    Telephone Triage Research

  19. Safety of Clinical and Non-Clinical Decision Makers in Telephone Triage. (2015) Wheeler, SQ., et al. Compares clinicians” & non-clinicians’ triage practice and safety.Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare:(PDF-186KB)

  20. Lessons Learned from Unusual Calls to the ED (1989). Wheeler, SQ. Journal of Emergency Nursing. (PDF-160KB)

  21. Google Scholar. Sheila Quilter Wheeler Articles (13) and research dating from 1993-2023

  22. Telephone Triage Articles & Research (2000-2020) Archival Nurse Triage topics by Wheeler. (PDF-28.2 MB)

  23. WayBack Machine: Internet Archive Explore TeleTriage Systems Historical Website dating from 19-2026

    Audio-links: Telephone Triage Case Studies & Tutorials

  24. 10 + Case Studies (1993) (Thomson-Delmar), Audio-links recreating Adult & Pediatric Remote Triage Malpractice Cases (MP3-11.8 MB)

  25. 10 + Case Studies (2009) (McGraw Hill) Audio-links to recreated Adult & Pediatric Remote Triage Malpractice Cases (MP3-6.3 MB)

    Foundational Telephone Triage Protocols, Guidelines

  26. First Training Manual Telephone Triage: Theory, Practice & Protocol (1993) Classic “How to” for Telephone Triage. (PDF-62.5 MB)

  27. Table of Contents for Telephone Triage: Theory, Practice and Protocol Development(PDF-470KB)

  28. Telephone Triage:Adult & Womens’ Health(2017) (PDF-215.8 MB)

  29.  Telephone Triage of School Age Children Age Six to 18 Years‍ ‍(2017) (PDF-62.7 MB)

  30.  Telephone Triage ofInfants & Children Age Birth to Six Years(2005) (PDF-36 MB)

  31. First Telephone Triage Conference(PDF-474KB)

    DOWNLOAD FREE TELEPHONE TRIAGE RESOURCES

    TeleTriage Systems Copyright Statement. Copyright 1993 -2026 Sheila Quilter Wheeler, TeleTriage Systems Publishers.  All Rights Reserved.  All materials are protected by copyright.  No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of Sheila Wheeler, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For problems receiving free materials, or for permissions, please contact Ms. Wheeler @ 415 453 8382

Rather have Bound Telephone Triage Guidelines for $50?

5-Level Triage, All Age-Based Protocols/Guidelines

A Basic Reference & Introductory Training Tool

To “Build Your Own” with Your Physician Preferences

ADULT AGE 18+ YEARS SCHOOL AGE 6 - 18 YEARS INFANT-CHILD BIRTH - 6 YEARS

Multi-Use, Multi-Purpose Guidelines

  • Including a Universal Guideline that can support clinical triage as:

    1. 1. a template is a structure for designing a full set of guidelines

    2. 2 a contingency or “fall back” guide for cases where no specific guideline applies

    3. 3. a preemptive guideline, or “go to” guide before selecting a more specific guideline

    4. 4. a training tool for newly hired nurses (as an introduction to a new remote nurse triage system, a review of practice and commonly presented symptoms (IOM, Joint Commission, 2011)

    6. A Universal Guideline serves both as an “Uber Triage Check List” as well as a Guideline Template for 45 + Site-Based Chief Complaints. The unique remote triage design is transparent, explainable and consistent. The clinical approach supports pattern recognition, patient context and heuristics that nurses typically use (Lephrohon, Patel, 1995), 

  • As an integrated system, the guideline design, clinical approach and clinical training increase clinical opportunities to make safe decisions by:

    •  adapting the nursing process to apply to remote nurse triage

    • describing broad patterns to identify high-risk symptoms, plus broad patterns of emergent to non-acute conditions

    •  listing broad categories of high-risk patients — Patient Contextual Patterns

    •  integrating built-in safety prompts and standards intended to reduce recurrent error

    • requiring training for remote clinical decision making.

  • Adapts ACEP symptom acuity categories. Meets Manchester Triage Group triage criteria. Uses a Universal Guideline design Approach.