JOB SUMMARY:
The Telephone Triage Nurse provides nurse advice, assessment, education and care coordination to Chase Brexton patients via telephone interaction. Using the nursing process, protocols and guidelines, the telephone triage nurse will assess, plan patient care, implement interventions and evaluate outcomes. The telephonic triage nurse provides an integral level of customer service to the patient, connecting the patient to the appropriate level of care during office hours. Serving as a trusted resource for patients, the telephone triage nurse can interpret provider instruction, provide patient education, escalate calls to appropriate members of the care team and disposition patients to a higher level of care as needed.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Analytical and Critical Thinking
* Identifies patients at risk for poor outcomes and those who may require more intensive services.
* Use motivational interviewing to garner a complete assessment.
* Utilizes assessment skills to evaluate patient needs and formulate a plan of care, as part of the multi-disciplinary care team. Revises outcomes and interventions based on results of ongoing evaluation, collaborating with both the patient and members of the care team.

Teamwork
* Collaborates with multi-disciplinary team to address both physical and psychological aspects of health to provide care for the whole patient.
* Collaborates care team to ensure adequate education on health promotion, disease prevention and/or management of disease.
* Facilitates provider and nursing visits with patients to address chronic illnesses, provides education about management and treatment of disease as needed.
* Collaborates with other members of the care team as needed

Patient Focus
* Conduct calls in friendly tone of voice maintaining a professional demeanor.
* Demonstrates awareness of cultural, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation and racial differences and their potential to impact patient outcomes.

Communication
* Provides education on the importance of preventative health screening.
* Utilizes interpreter services for patient communication as necessary.
* Uses the CPS flag and alerts system to communicate with the care team when needed.
* Attends departmental, site staff meetings and participates in committee meetings as assigned.
* Assess patient care needs through interview and provide clinical advice when appropriate.
* Adapts communication style to persons from varying personal, cultural, professional and socio-economic backgrounds.
* Uses excellent listening and interviewing skills to receive detailed information.

Checking, Examining, and Recording
* Documents both incoming and outgoing calls as they occur and communicates effectively with other team members to ensure continuity of care to the patient.
* Collects health status data relevant to the patient's present problem in a continuous, systematic and complete manner.
* Documents all patient interactions appropriately in the electronic medical record.

Integrity
* Maintains confidentiality in all situations.

Compliance, Policy, and Procedures
* Adheres to nursing protocols and organizational standing orders.
* Adheres to call center protocols and standards.

Willingness to Learn
* Encouraged to seek and maintain membership in professional organizations such as the AAACN, ANAC, etc.

Professionalism
* Consistently displays professionalism in dealing with patients, staff, and clinicians.

Skills & Abilities:
* Experience with documentation in an Electronic Medical Record
* Ability to work with computers in word processing, and database applications preferred.
* CPR certified by scheduled start date.
* Must be flexible and adapt to a changing environment.
* Able to prioritize competing responsibilities
* Ability to multi-task; thinks talks and types simultaneously.

Education/Experience:
* Required: Graduate from an Accredited School of Nursing; Current Maryland Registered Nursing License
* Preferred: Five years of nursing experience in an ambulatory or acute care setting; BSN
* Significant related experience with populations served may substitute for above requirement.
* Bilingual: English/Spanish

Working condition/physical demands:
Work is performed in an office environment with constant use of the telephone and computer.

The specific statements shown in each section of this description are not intended to be all-inclusive. They represent typical elements considered necessary to successfully perform the job.