Understanding Telephone Triage for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs)
Empowering DSPs to Help the Triage Nurse Expedite Care

ABOUT THE TRAINING:

Telephone triage / management has become an important dimension of ID/DD residential care systems. Increased numbers of individuals with ID/DD who have complex healthcare needs now live in community settings.

The Direct Support Professional (DSP) is mainly at the residence. Illness and injuries occur when there is no RN physically present to directly assess the person and intervene. At those times, telephone triage becomes a critical link in the care chain.

It is essential that DSP’s have the skills, knowledge and understanding to recognize potential emergent situations and notify the nurse.

This training, taking place on Friday, November 20 from 10:00 AM-1:00 PM, is intended to provide DSP’s with the basic knowledge and comprehension to recognize and report a potential emergent situation to the nurse over the phone. 

Empowering DSP’s to help the Triage Nurse expedite care to the resident in a timely manner is the main goal of this course. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By completion of this course, the learner will be able to understand:

• Definition of telephone triage (TT)
• Essential component parts of the definition
• Purpose of TT in general
• Purpose/role of TT in IDD settings
• Requirements for staff who perform TT
• Difference between national “standards” vs. legal requirements  

TT Protocols

• Understanding the role of nurse selected protocols in the TT process
• Value of protocols in the process of TT
• Various TT protocols/formats available (DSP Basic Introduction)
• Explain the basis of RN decision making in the TT arena
• Process of providing pertinent information used by the RN in the protocol decision making in conditions of uncertainty
• How to collect pertinent information to be used by the RN
• Types of decision making in TT

How to gather information to select appropriate actions:
Understand the potential types of telephone triage (emergent, urgent, non-urgent)
Sharing of Experiences via open-forum format