J Hosp Palliat Nurs
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J Hosp Palliat Nurs · Jul 2012
A Descriptive, Retrospective Study of After-hours Calls in Hospice and Palliative Care.
A fixed coding scheme was used to code a de-identified after-hours triage phone log of all calls between July 2005 and June 2006 (n=4,434) from a Pennsylvania hospice and palliative care services organization. Descriptive statistics were used to identify call timing pattern, call reasons, and predominant nursing interventions. ⋯ A better understanding of when and why patients and their family caregivers utilize after-hours hospice triage services can assist in the design of future proactive interventions to improve care, and enhance training for new and existing hospice triage nurses.