It's good to talk

Published: 07 September 2010

John Sweeney, a telephone support nurse, believes that nurses in similar roles have a lot to talk about. That’s why he’s excited about a new thread on the IN Forum Discussion Zone.

There's a new reason to login at the Information in Nursing Forum Discussion Zone. If you are a nurse working on the telephone, do visit the discussion zone here.

Telephone nursing is such a growing area of our profession that almost everyone knows someone whose role involves this to an ever-increasing degree. Indeed, it might be the main part of your job if you are someone like myself, a Cancer Information Nurse Specialist working for Macmillan Cancer Support, or if you are a nurse adviser for NHSDirect or NHS24.

Many nurses now find the telephone is a large part of their work yet the consequences and difficulties, requirements and needs of telephone work often go unrecognised by colleagues and management, and it still remains largely neglected in nurse education.

Phones are so much part of our increasingly-connected everyday lifestyle that how we behave with them, personally and professionally, can become indistinguishable. We would not let this happen with our professional use of other language and communication skills

Stress – and distress

Telephone communication is becoming a stress point for many people, as much evidence (and probably your own experience) bears out:
• Research suggests that 65 per cent of people are more likely to express anger over the phone compared to 26 per cent in writing and nine per cent face-to-face.
• Distressing calls stay with you for many years and can influence future practice (think of one right now – I imagine it won't be hard to do.)

Meeting the demand of a fulltime telephone nursing service is often at conflict with the individual demands of callers, just as time on the telephone is often seen as a distraction from clinical work, even where that clinical work focuses on communication.

‘Real’ nursing

Although we may be surrounded by others, the confidential space offered by telephone nursing services can often mean that as well as anger, people may express other forms of emotional distress more readily. This belies the presumption that this is in some way a form of nursing that is less "real".

Little training is routinely available outside organisations offering fulltime telephone work although many units have out-of-hours helpline services now, particularly relating to chemotherapy or palliative care.

So let's talk!

I am unclear as to what particular attention is given for staff working in these areas. Maybe the discussion zone will help me and you and others find out more about what is happening in different services and areas. Would you be willing to share practice and experiences to develop a wider recognition of what such training might look like?
 
We hope that this will provide an area where nurses who are working regularly on the phone with patients and families can find support and an opportunity to share their experiences as well as learn from other nurses’ s systems and work.

The application of the large body of knowledge developed around communication rarely includes telephone communications and how such methods can be well employed. Counselling services and (help!) medics have unfortunately beat us to it here I'm afraid - maybe this discussion will be a way to begin redressing the balance.

Speak up for nursing

Like any discussion, it will probably turn out to be something else entirely - but if it does, then it will reflect the needs of those posting on it.

It is also a chance to balance this particular discussion area with conversations that reflect the human face - or should that be the human voice - of telephone nursing alongside the understandable emphasis there must be in such a fast developing area on systems and methods of recording the work being done.