ArticleScandinavian journal of primary health care2021
Phone triage nurses' assessment of respiratory tract infections - the tightrope walk between gatekeeping and service providing. A qualitative study.
Article in Scandinavian journal of primary health care, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Factors affecting communication during telephone triage in medical call centres: a mixed methods systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Effect of an educational intervention for telephone triage nurses on out-of-hours attendance: a pragmatic randomized controlled study.BMC health services research · 2023Trial
- Telephone triage in urgent unscheduled primary care in 16 European countries: a cross-national questionnaire-based expert study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Juggling conflicting demands: registered nurses' experiences of goal conflicts in acute illness consultations in primary care - a thematic analysis.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- "Loops and hurdles": secondary analysis of patient interview data to explore the experience of patient access to UK general practice.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Video-supported telephone triage in emergency primary healthcare: an observational study from Norway.BMJ open · 2026Observational
- Diagnostic equipment and point-of-care tests in Norwegian emergency primary healthcare clinics: a cross-sectional study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Identifying performance indicators to measure overall performance of telephone triage - a scoping review.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Article
- Experiences of out-of-hours task-shifting from GPs: a systematic review of qualitative studies.BJGP open · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPhone nurses triage callers to Norwegian out-of-hours cooperatives to estimate the appropriate urgency and level of care for the caller. Many callers with mild symptoms of respiratory tract infections receive a doctor's consultation, which may lead to busy sessions and in turn impair clinical decisions.
objectiveThis study explores how phone triage nurses assess callers with mild-to-moderate symptoms of respiratory tract infections and their views and experiences on triaging and counselling these callers.
methodsWe conducted four focus groups with 22 nurses (five men and 17 women aged 24-66 years) in three different locations in Norway. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed by systematic text condensation.
resultsThe informants were reluctant to call themselves gatekeepers. However, their description of their work indicates that they practice such a role. When nurses and callers disagreed about the right level of care, the informants sought consensus through strategies and negotiations. The informants described external factors such as organisational or financial issues as decisive for the population's use of out-of-hours services. They also described callers' characteristics, such as language deficiency and poor ability to describe symptoms, as determining their own clinical assessments.
conclusionsNurses perceive assessments of callers with respiratory tract infections as challenging. They need skills and time to reach a consensus with the callers and guide them to the right level of health care. This should be considered when planning nurse training and staffing of out-of-hours cooperatives.KEY-POINTSPhone triage nurses assess callers to the out-of-hours service and estimate the level of urgencyThis study explores how phone triage nurses assess callers with respiratory tract infections and their views and experiences on this taskThe nurses describe their professional role as a tightrope walk between gatekeeping and service providingThe nurses seek consensus with callers through strategies and negotiations.
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