Telephone nursing in Sweden: A narrative literature review

Abstract

Telephone nursing services are expanding globally. Swedish Healthcare Direct is the largest healthcare provider in Sweden. This paper provides a comprehensive understanding of telephone nursing, as reflected by research on Swedish national telephone nursing, and discusses the findings in relation to international literature. A descriptive, mixed-studies literature review was conducted. Twenty-four articles from January 2003 to April 2015 were identified from PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL, and included. The issues explored in this study are how telephone nursing is perceived by callers, telephone nurses, and managers, and what characterizes such calls. Callers value reassurance, support, respect and satisfaction and involvement in decisions can increase their adherence. The telephone nurses' perspective focused on problems and ethical dilemmas, communication, the decision support tool, and working tasks. The managers' perspective focused on nursing work goals and malpractice claims. Concerning call characteristics, authentic calls, incident reports, and threats to patient safety were considered. Telephone nursing seems safe, but gender can play a role in calls. Future research on caller access, equity, and efficiency, healthcare cost-effectiveness, distribution, and patient safety is needed.

To feel emotional concern: A qualitative interview study to explore telephone nurses’ experiences of difficult calls

“…Meeting this objective requires that telenurses achieve a continual presence of mind. Promoting individualized and respectful engagement and involvement with callers can increase their satisfaction and acceptance of the telenurse’s recommendation (Kaminsky, Röing, Björkman, & Holmström, ).…”

When all other doors are closed: Telenurses' experiences of encountering care seekers with mental illnesses

“…On the other hand, the results also demonstrate that these calls required more resources in terms of time. However, time was also viewed as being a hard currency, and thus, spending a long time on these calls was contradictory to the goals of an organization in which the nurses should answer 7-10 calls per hour (Kaminsky et al 2017;Roing & Holmstrom 2014). We found variations in the data, as some participants highlighted the importance of focussing on the present care seeker to ensure they did not become stressed.…”

The effect of a short educational intervention in social insurance medicine: A randomized controlled trial

“…Telephone nursing is performed by Registered Nurses (RNs) in many settings, one of which is in primary healthcare centres (PHCCs) in Sweden (Kaminsky, Röing, Björkman, & Holmström, ). Among the topics of telephone calls, are questions related to sick leave, referred to in this research as “sick leave questions” (SLQs) (Lännerström, Holmström, Svärdsudd, & Wallman, ; Lännerström, Wallman, & Söderbäck, ; Lännerström, von Celsing, Holmström, & Wallman, ; Müssener & Linderoth, ).…”

“…Among the topics of telephone calls, are questions related to sick leave, referred to in this research as “sick leave questions” (SLQs) (Lännerström, Holmström, Svärdsudd, & Wallman, ; Lännerström, Wallman, & Söderbäck, ; Lännerström, von Celsing, Holmström, & Wallman, ; Müssener & Linderoth, ). Telephone nursing is known to be a difficult and demanding task that requires not only updated knowledge of evidence‐based medicine and nursing, the care system, regulations and local routines but also skills in communication to provide optimal care to the patient (Greenberg, ; Holmström & Höglund, ; Holmström, Gustafsson, Wesström, & Skoglund, ; Kaminsky, Rosenqvist, & Holmström, ; Kaminsky et al, ; Leppänen, ). Callers wish for telephone nurses to be calm, clear and competent.…”