How To Become A Telephone Triage Nurse: What It Is and Career Path

What is a telephone triage nurse and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Allyssa Harris RN, PhD, WHNP-BC

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a telephone triage nurse. For example, did you know that they make an average of $32.45 an hour? That's $67,500 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 195,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a telephone triage nurse?

Allyssa Harris RN, PhD, WHNP-BC

Dean and Professor, Prairie View A & M University

Daily, nurses with the health care team to manage and coordinate patient care which include physical assessments-assessing, observing, and evaluating the patient's response to care, administering medication and treatments, assisting with procedures, and providing health education to patients and their families. Additionally, nurses often supervise other unlicensed health care team members including licensed vocational nurses, patient care technicians (PCTs) and nursing students.

ScoreTelephone Triage NurseUS Average

Salary

5.3

Avg. Salary $67,500

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

10.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 8.92%

Black or African American 11.29%

Hispanic or Latino 9.32%

Unknown 4.28%

White 65.75%

Gender

female 92.63%

male 7.37%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

10.0

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.1

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.8

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a telephone triage nurse

Explore telephone triage nurse education requirements

Most common telephone triage nurse degrees

Bachelor's

40.7 %

Associate

38.5 %

Diploma

10.7 %

Start to develop specific telephone triage nurse skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	26.93%
Telephone Triage	8.31%
Patient Education	7.26%
Patient Care	5.88%
Home Health	4.21%

Complete relevant telephone triage nurse training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New telephone triage nurses learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a telephone triage nurse based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real telephone triage nurse resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed telephone triage nurse usually require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed telephone triage nurse in most of states. 43 states require telephone triage nurses to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alabama	Degree required	State exam required	Registered Nurse (RN)
Alaska	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Nurse, Registered
Arkansas	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Registered Nurse (RN)
California	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Nurse, Registered
Colorado	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Registered Nurse

Research telephone triage nurse duties and responsibilities

Manage chronic medical condition (s) such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and renal insufficiency.
Manage surgical recovery patients including vascular, ENT, GI urological and neurological cases, coronary bypass surgery patients.
See patients of all ages, suturing, splinting, prescribing medications, ordering labs, radiology tests, doing referrals.
Maintain patient charts and confidential files in accordance with HIPAA regulations.

Prepare your telephone triage nurse resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your telephone triage nurse resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a telephone triage nurse resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable telephone triage nurse resume templates

Build a professional telephone triage nurse resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your telephone triage nurse resume.