Quality indicators in telephone nursing - An integrative review.
Silje Rysst Gustafsson, Irene Eriksson
PMID 33369230WHAT IT FOUND
The review found ten factors indicating quality telephone nursing: accessible short waits, calm working conditions, specialist training, good communication, person-centred care, competence, correct safe advice, efficiency and satisfaction.
Nurses should verify understanding and safety-net callers.
Key findings
01Ten factors indicated quality in telephone nursing: four structural, three process and three outcome factors.
02Referral accuracy in included studies varied from 44% to 98%, with a median of 75%, and 3% to 10% of assessments carried a risk of patient injury.
03Verifying that callers understood advice and safety-netting for return or further care were described as important quality indicators.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
It is a narrative review, not a trial or meta-analysis, so it identifies factors reported in the literature but does not show that changing any factor improves telephone nursing quality or patient outcomes. The review included studies with different designs and populations, so the numbers reported come from heterogeneous samples and may not apply to every telephone nursing service. The authors acknowledge relevant literature may have been missed despite systematic search. Many included studies are cross-sectional or qualitative, so factors are described, not tested.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that telephone nursing improves outcomes or that these ten factors will fix a service. The review synthesises observational and qualitative studies and does not test an intervention. It shows what was reported as associated with quality in the included papers.