welcome to the Learning Center a place where nurses can learn and discuss the newest and best practices to triage their patients I am Marcy line the triage logic nurse educator in this video we will go over the final three steps that are critical in the triage call Process these steps are giving relevant care advice making sure your patient knows callback symptoms and offering reassurance to your patient let's start by briefly reviewing steps 1 through 7 you can also watch our past video courses located on the Learning Center to get more information on each step in the triage call Process step one introduce yourself including your title and the practice you're representing step two collect or verify demographic information step three collect a brief past medical history step four let your patient talk step five document a brief yet complete assessment step six choose the right protocol and step seven get your patient to the right level of care care advice should be specific and targeted to each individual patient and their current symptoms giving the patient care advice they do not need is timec consuming and may be confusing to the patient before giving any care advice the nurse should take into account all the previous steps she has done in her call so far and further scale her care advice here are a few examples of how past medical history or current health conditions will influence care advice your first call of the day is a 21-year-old college student student who is studying for her final exams she's been up late at night reading and probably not eating or drinking well she has no health conditions is not pregnant has no allergies and is not taking any medication either prescription or over the- counter she is calling you because she has a mild headache and doesn't know what to take for it you complete your triage and determine her symptoms are probably safe for Home Care advice so you recommend the appropriate dose of moin resting in a dark quiet place perhaps using a cool compress over her forehead and practicing some simple stretching and massage techniques your second call of the day is very similar except this time your patient is 25 weeks pregnant with her first child she too is 21 years old healthy with no known drug allergies and is not taking any medication other than a prenatal vitamin your second caller's care advice is going to differ slightly because of her pregnancy while resting cool compresses stretching and massage would be appropriate care advice the moin would not while giving care advice to your patient the information should be presented in an organized way each piece of information or advice should be preceded by the nurse introducing the topic for instance if you are going to explain what to do for a fever you should start by saying I am going to give you some information about fevers this way the patient knows what to expect and is ready to process information on how to treat a fever the nurse should remember this is not a rise to see how fast she can go through through the care advice the patient needs to be able to process the information and understand each part before moving on speak slowly and pause between topics this gives the patient time to process the information they received and ask questions before moving on to the next piece of advice if the caller has already tried appropriate care before calling you this step is also a nice time to a reassure them that they are doing a great job the most important thing to remember about giving care advice is to not delay care if the disposition was go to Ed now the patient only needs to know limited information such as do not eat or drink or have someone drive you now the rest of the Care advice will be given in the emergency room the next to last step after giving the care advice is to give the patient call back instructions while it is impossible to go over every worst case scenario with the patient the nurse should give the caller basic symptoms to watch for that would indicate a call back to nurse triage is warranted along with what symptoms to watch out for the patient should also be given a time frame such as if your fever does not resolve within three days you will need to follow up with your physician or if your cough does not improve approve in one week please see a doctor just as with care advice the call back instructions should be reviewed slowly and the nurse should take pauses between topics to allow the patient to write down these signs symptoms and to ask questions finally the last step of the 10 critical steps to a triage call is perhaps the most important step in the entire process it is making sure sure your patient understands the care advice call back symptoms and is willing and able to follow the plan of care that you went over with him steps 1 through nine will not mean much if your patient doesn't understand what was told to him your ending statement needs to be direct and simple such as do you understand the care advice and callback symptoms we reviewed and are you willing and able to follow this plan keep in mind patient safety and well-being should always be your top concern please visit our Learning Center for more articles and videos feel free to leave comments and share this video with your colleagues