Telephone triage nurses can help you with medical knowledge and advice. Whether you need information on how to take a medication, how to treat a condition at home, or whether you need to seek medical care immediately, a telephone triage nurse can help you out. You simply call in and the nurse will help you out with your questions after hours and at times when you can't reach your own physician.

Many doctors' offices are turning to telephone triage nurse services because of the ease and the advantages it provides to patients. Often, individuals who may have medical questions are out of luck once their doctor's office closes for the night or for the weekend. Important information like how a medication should be taken, whether a symptom is serious enough to seek emergency medical care, or how to treat a common illness or injury at home has to wait until the office reopens in many cases.

With a telephone triage nurse service, patients are always able to talk to a medical professional who can give them information and advice. Questions don't always happen during office hours and this way patients can talk to a qualified professional. Triage nurses assess the severity of the patient's symptoms and then provide appropriate advice.

Triage nurses do not diagnose patients and health care facilities choose only very qualified individuals because they need to be able to assess the situation without seeing the patient. Because the service is provided by a doctor's office or other health care facility, a record of the phone call can be forwarded on to the office or doctor in case a follow up appointment is needed.

In addition, these nurses may provide services like booking appointments for patients after hours or handling other scheduling issues. Depending on the service, the nurse may have access to x-rays or other tests in order to screen them for potential problems that need to be dealt with immediately. The services can be very helpful for health care facilities and doctors' offices.

When a patient calls in, the triage nurse asks about basic information like age, weight, sex, and so on. They also investigate the caller's question via specific algorithms that allow them to assess the symptoms without jumping to conclusions. Based on the information provided, the nurse can provide information to the caller or give them advice on whether he needs to seek immediate medical attention.

Telephone triage nurses are changing the way that individuals get medical care. They provide a much needed service for both patients and doctors. Triage nurses can help callers with assessing a medical problem and answering questions about medications and appointments.