Reaching Our Residents: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Educating Our Future Providers in the Art of Telephone Triage (Spotlight Poster)

Our growing centralized telephone triage program provides care to over 250,000 patients across an extensive care network of 30+ primary care offices located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We are associated with a large teaching institution which provides training to both resident and fellow physicians. We aim to achieve consistent disposition and care advice across all roles involved in the telephone triage program. During the expansion of our office hours program, the need for a standardized interdisciplinary approach for the training of pediatric resident physicians in the art of telephone triage was identified. Consistency and standardized educational materials were nonexistent, and the training experience outcomes differed significantly. Resident medical doctors were shadowing telephone triage nurses with little to no background information or context into the differing scopes of practice, protocol use, and assessment techniques which can be used over the phone during a triage call.
This author collaborated with a chief resident, as well as the medical director for the resident training program, to develop a standardized resident training program for telephone triage. Analysis of the challenges of the previous training method for residents resulted in the development of clear, concise learning objectives for the new resident training program. Scope specific educational tools and workflows were developed as a combination of self-learning modules, open discussion with an experienced triage nurse, demonstration of a nurse-led triage call, and skills observation by the MD preceptor. A variety of chief complaints as well as possible patient dispositions were considered by the triage nurse, and appropriate calls were forwarded to the residents to complete.
The outcomes of this project were measured using pre- and post-survey data. Pre-surveys collected residents’ baseline level of knowledge and comfortability, and post-survey data revealed the new training program’s efficacy. Data analysis revealed that using an interdisciplinary approach to training resident physicians in telephone triage led to increased understanding of the triage nurse’s scope of practice, assessment capabilities, and common challenges experienced during a telephone triage call. We believe that this standardized interdisciplinary approach will influence the future generation of physicians and empower their practice of telemedicine to include a mutual understanding and respect for their nursing counterparts.
After attending this poster presentation, the audience will be able to identify differences in physician vs. nurse telephone triage scope of practice, appreciate the value of the interdisciplinary approach to resident physician training, and model similar training and educational guides for use in their own institution.