5 Common Telephone Triage Nurse Interview Questions & Answers

My previous work in a women’s health clinic meant working with many sensitive situations. Often patients were hesitant or too embarrassed to share critical details. I found that the most effective way to ensure an optimal flow of information was to create a culture of open communication and take active steps to create rapport and trust with patients.

I begin spending just the first minute of interaction focusing on building rapport. I make it a goal to learn one thing about patients unrelated to their medical condition, such as asking about hobbies or children. This extra minute puts patients at ease, and significantly increases the amount and detail of information provided. Ultimately this allows me to deliver better treatment and enhance patient safety.

When I first began studying nursing, I had a hard time separating myself emotionally from patients. When they were sad, I was sad. When they were stressed, so was I. As the healthcare field deals with so many emotional extremes, I was quickly facing burnout. I saw many nurses cope by developing an increasingly calloused attitude towards patients, but I also observed the drop in communication and quality care that came along with this method. When I began my first professional position, I realized had to come up with techniques for balancing my professional distance with patient connection. While I still allow myself to share in the joy and the sadness of my patients, verbally empathizing with their emotional state, I no longer allow myself to become consumed by the situation. I have found this creates an ideal balance of rapport and optimized professional capabilities.

The clinic where I held my previous position was very small, with a total staff of under 10 employees. This meant many of us expanded our roles, and I took on a few additional responsibilities in addition to nursing. It became my responsibility to arrange the travel details of various corporate outings and conferences for my administrative lead. I was asked to take on this task after another employee had scheduled a flight on the wrong day, causing my boss to miss an important seminar. To make sure I coordinated the details correctly, I listened carefully to my administrator’s travel needs, recorded everything through email to ensure documentation, and had her verify each point before I made any bookings. Once I completed arrangements, I had her re-verify the details to make sure everything was on point. It took a little more time, but it created a system of verification through open communication by which errors could be caught and easily fixed before they became costly and affected our productivity.

Keeping up with new developments can certainly be a challenge, so I’m lucky that it’s something I feel so passionate about. The research I do on my own time is something I would do regardless of profession. I subscribe to several journals and am also a member of a few nursing organizations. Aside from reading the few medical journals I subscribe to, a few other nurses I have connected with make it a point to meet every month or so to discuss the newest advancements and trends.