The Need for Education and Improvement of Occupational Knowledge: Experience of Telephone Triage Nurses in the 115 Emergency Call Center of the Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Management Center at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Abstract

Background & Objective: Efficient emergency call answering services are vital for the medical emergency services all around the world. The provision of emergency services is based on ordering and prioritizing received calls. In addition, educating this kind of services has a prominent role in answer time and quality. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of telephone triage nurses in 115 Emergency Call Center of the Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Management Center at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in form of phenomenological qualitative study. The sample was selected based on purposive sampling method including 5 nurses in emergency medical services at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, with at least 5 years of experience in the 115 Emergency Call Center. Data were collected using deep unstructured individual interviews. The average time of each interview was 63 minutes and an electronic recorder was used to record the interviews. The data were analyzed using Colaizzi method. The collected data were reconsidered by the researcher in order to confirm their reliability. Results: From the interviews, 737 summarized concepts were extracted and formed 9 thematic categorizations. Finally, the 3 themes of “performing cultural and societal roles”, “performing professional and organizational roles”, and “performing personal roles” were obtained. Experiences of nurses were stated in the form of a compact and continuum set between strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. Conclusion: The findings of the study can be summarized in two fundamental points. First, evaluation skills which are used in face-to-face consultation cannot be transferred directly by telephone. This shows that specific training on telephone consultation, treatment evaluation, and decision-making skills should be provided for triage nurses who work at such centers. Second, a greater degree of job satisfaction can be achieved among the emerging class of telephone triage nurses through allowing independent decision-making and decreasing decision-making errors by consistent telephone triage instructions, and creating suitable educational methods in order to control experienced stresses. These are points that must be considered by the Medical Emergency and Disaster Management Centre to promote occupational knowledge of nurses in 115 Emergency Call Center. Key Words: Triage nurses, Telephone triage, Experience, Emergency medical dispatcher, Disaster Management Center, Educatio