| Sumario: | Significance & Background: In an Outpatient Cancer Center specializing in thoracic medical and surgical oncology, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for prompt and appropriate patient care. Frontline nurses play a critical role in patient care through effective triage and assessment. Accurate communication of patient symptoms to the clinical team is vital for timely and appropriate treatment. However, triage inconsistencies from calls and messages often stem from varying levels of nursing knowledge that impact their confidence. This deficit in knowledge may result in prolonged correspondence among nurses, patients, and providers. This leads to frustration, decreased nurse confidence, delays, and/or patient mismanagement. Purpose: This project's intent was to enhance registered nurses' knowledge and confidence in triaging patient calls and messages related to thoracic oncology. By providing targeted educational sessions, the initiative sought to improve clinical decision-making and communication skills within the interdisciplinary team. Interventions: A pre-intervention survey was administered to assess nurses' self-reported confidence levels in triaging thoracic oncology concerns. Nurses also provided input on topics of interest and areas for improvement. Based on this feedback, educational sessions were delivered by advanced nurse practitioners in thoracic medical and surgical oncology. These sessions were recorded to ensure accessibility for all staff. Following the intervention, nurses were given time to apply the acquired knowledge before completing a post-intervention survey to evaluate changes in confidence levels. Results: Post-intervention results demonstrated a measurable improvement in the nurse's knowledge and confidence: * Thoracic Medical Oncology: 28.123% average increase in self-reported confidence. * Thoracic Surgical Oncology: 32.623% average increase in self-reported confidence. * Pain-related Surgical Calls: 23% average increase in self-reported confidence. Discussion: This educational initiative was well received by all participating nurses (n=8). These nurses reported increased confidence in managing patient symptom-related concerns and improved communication with interdisciplinary teams. The increased confidence was directly related to the educational sessions. These findings suggest that ongoing educational opportunities can further enhance nurse triage capabilities; ultimately contributing to improved patient outcomes and provider satisfaction.
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