ArticleBMJ open2014
Question design in nurse-led and GP-led telephone triage for same-day appointment requests: a comparative investigation.
Article in BMJ open, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Role of Language in Remote Healthcare Triage: A Meta-Aggregative Review.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Factors affecting communication during telephone triage in medical call centres: a mixed methods systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Exploring demographic and lifestyle associations with patient experience following telephone triage by a primary care doctor or nurse: secondary analyses from a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMJ quality & safety · 2015Trial
- Implementing telephone triage in general practice: a process evaluation of a cluster randomised controlled trial.BMC family practice · 2015Trial
- Registered nurse-patient communication and decision-making in primary care consultations: a scoping review.BMC nursing · 2026Article
- Impact of a Prototype Combining Recommender Functionality With Structured Documentation on Operator Performance in Calls to Medical Communication Centers: Quasi-Experimental Feasibility Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Nursing teleconsultation in primary health care: scoping review.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2024Article
- The telephone nursing dialogue process: an integrative review.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Parents' concerns and beliefs about temperature measurement in children: a qualitative study.BMC family practice · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Factors affecting medical file documentation during telephone triage at an emergency call centre: a cross-sectional study of out-of-hours home visits by general practitioners in France.BMC health services research · 2019Article
- Observational
- Quality of out-of-hours telephone triage by general practitioners and nurses: development and testing of the AQTT - an assessment tool measuring communication, patient safety and efficiency.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Article
- Process evaluation for complex interventions in health services research: analysing context, text trajectories and disruptions.BMC health services research · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo compare doctors' and nurses' communication with patients in primary care telephone triage consultations.
designQualitative comparative study of content and form of questions in 51 telephone triage encounters between practitioners (general practitioners (GPs)=29; nurses=22) and patients requesting a same-day appointment in primary care. Audio-recordings of nurse-led calls were synchronised with video recordings of nurse's use of computer decision support software (CDSS) during triage.
setting2 GP practices in Devon and Warwickshire, UK.
participants4 GPs and 29 patients; and 4 nurses and 22 patients requesting a same-day face-to-face appointment with a GP.
main outcome measureForm and content of practitioner-initiated questions and patient responses during clinical assessment.
resultsA total of 484 question-response sequences were coded (160 GP; 324 N). Despite average call lengths being similar (GP=4 min, 37 s, (SD=1 min, 26 s); N=4 min, 39 s, (SD=2 min, 22 s)), GPs and nurses differed in the average number (GP=5.51, (SD=4.66); N=14.72, (SD=6.42)), content and form of questions asked. A higher frequency of questioning in nurse-led triage was found to be due to nurses' use of CDSS to guide telephone triage. 89% of nurse questions were oriented to asking patients about their reported symptoms or to wider-information gathering, compared to 54% of GP questions. 43% of GP questions involved eliciting patient concerns or expectations, and obtaining details of medical history, compared to 11% of nurse questions. Nurses using CDSS frequently delivered questions designed as declarative statements requesting confirmation and which typically preferred a 'no problem' response. In contrast, GPs asked a higher proportion of interrogative questions designed to request information.
conclusionsNurses and GPs emphasise different aspects of the clinical assessment process during telephone triage. These different styles of triage have implications for the type of information available following nurse-led or doctor-led triage, and for how patients experience triage.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.