Tel-eNurse Practice. Quality of care and patient outcomes

As a growing specialty, telephone nursing practice requires definition, standardization, and identification of quality indicators and nursing-sensitive outcomes. An informal study was conducted to explore the relationship between telephone nursing quality indicators-assessment, critical thinking, use of protocols, and continuity of care-found in documentation and nursing-sensitive patient outcomes. Findings provide insight into the telephone process of care and application of critical thinking reflected in documentation and greater understanding of the complexity of telephone nursing practice and integration of care and outcomes.