Telephone Triage Escape Box: Innovative Orientation Strategy for Ambulatory Care Nurses

Background: Discussion with newly hired and experienced nurses in the ambulatory care setting identified a gap when triaging phone calls. Telephone triage is a skill that the ambulatory care registered nurse utilizes daily. Escape rooms are known to be an effective learning strategy to add engagement and aide in delivering content to staff on various topics. The nursing professional development specialists created a portable escape box allowing for mobilization in clinics across the organization. The box focuses on triaging patients with multiple medical conditions with games and puzzles as they work through the scenarios.
Purpose: The purpose of the telephone triage escape box was to sharpen critical thinking, allowing for more confidence in triaging phone calls and directing to the appropriate level of care. This unique strategy has made a significant impact on how the ambulatory care nurses have integrated nursing concepts and resources while increasing productivity.
Methods: The nursing professional development specialists used the theoretical framework of Lewin’s change theory to assist the nurses with overcoming resistance to variation. The telephone triage escape box was developed with four different types of locks to open each different scenario. These scenarios focus on triaging an urgent phone call, writing in SBAR format, choosing the correct protocol, and using telephone triage nuggets of knowledge. The nurse has one hour to escape the box and solve the puzzles.
Conclusion: More than 75 staff members participated in the telephone triage escape box since implementing this new educational tool during their orientation. Utilizing this distinct methodology to restructure validation practices produced favorable evaluations. The staff stated that this modality of education will help to improve their triaging skills and job performance, as well as impact their productivity. The most valuable measure was utilizing triage resources and learning new ways to communicate with patients during phone triage.