Triage Nurse (RN): Ambulatory Care

Description

The triage nurse has a highly acute skill set for assessing and prioritizing patient needs and directing the interventions needed for resolution of the needs. The triage nurse must be able to evaluate patients and situations quickly. The goal of the triage nurse is to provide “care in one call.” This care includes scheduling an appointment, managing concern over the phone or directing patient to more emergent level of care. There may be other duties within the scope of the RN role as assigned.

Triage Nurse – nursing professional who’s usually the first to access patients and determine the type of care they need in emergency care setting. They ensure that patients’ needs are being addressed timely and efficiently without compromising their health and preventing unnecessary hospitalization.

POSITION SUMMARY

The triage nurse uses clinical reasoning based on established evidence-based policies, procedures and guidelines for decision-making. This role requires the use of clinical knowledge, experience, communication, assessment skills and nursing judgement to conduct telephone assessment or visualization of patients’ needs to effectively prioritize and process calls and to decide whether patient has to be seen at urgent care, referred to the specialist or be scheduled for a primary care visit to provide optimal patient care and follows up on other concerns and issues that need to be resolved. The triage nurse may be involved in care planning for challenging patients. The triage nurse ensures patient receives the most appropriate care for their symptoms/medical concerns they present with. The triage nurse should have self -directed ability to work with minimal guidance.

Requirements

Professional Experience/Educational Requirements

• RN degree from an accredited school of nursing required
• Minimum of 3-years professional nursing in clinical setting with 1 year of acute care experience preferred (ER/ICU/Med/Surg)
• Minimum 1-year supervisory experience preferred
• Previous experience as a Triage RN is preferred
• EMR experience, Epic knowledge are preferred
• Proficiency in MS Office Word, Excel, Power Point, and Outlook required.

Essential Position Duties

• Able to accesses patient information via EMR.
• Establishes an immediate therapeutic rapport with callers and making every effort possible to resolve the problem in “one call."
• Reports and documents the assessment information and changes in patient conditions in the EMR
• Serves as the primary point of contact for telephone patients with a variety of health or illness questions.
• Ensures that the caller comprehends health information and clinical advice to make informed healthcare decisions.
• Listens, communicates and documents simultaneously and navigates computer programs to assess, process, educate and document all information in a professional manner.
• Triages incoming phone calls assuring needed communication results from phone calls, with necessary follow up as appropriate with clinicians, patients and physicians.
• Obtains verbal orders from the physician’s office, when appropriate, documents the orders and signs them in the electronic system.
• Effectively prioritize and process calls to provide optimal patient care
• Professionally identify self to patient/family/caregiver, physicians, nursing facility staff and other referral sources.
• Initiate and maintain effective communication with the care team and the VP of Nursing.
• Assure compliance with local, state, and federal laws, and established personnel policies and procedures.
• Receives incoming calls from referral sources, makes an initial evaluation of the referral’s appropriateness for Charter Oak Health center.
• Acquires authorizations from payer when necessary for follow up procedures.
• Assist in the investigation and resolution of quality issues in conjunction with the continues Quality Improvement Committee.
• Prepare for nurse visits (face to face with patients) if required.
• Triage nurse serves as a care coordinator for the patients who’ve been discharged from the hospital, making a phone calls within 24 or 48 hours after discharge. Triage nurse can also provide resources and referrals for transportation assistance, Meals on Wheels, or financial aid.
• Troubleshoot technology with patients.
• Render telephone advise based on current practice guideline and policies.
• Document services discussed and provided details in electronic medical record.
• Analyzed discussed symptoms with established protocol to determine patient acuity.
• Communicate triage information to the primary care team to discuss disposition.
• Review medical chart and request