Jitterbug LiveNurse

The Jitterbug LiveNurse service gives Jitterbug owners 24 hour access to live nurses for tailored health and wellness advice.

Update

LiveNurse is also available via their UrgentCare app for iOS and Android smartphones.

Otherwise, for a small monthly fee of $4 a month you call directly from your Jitterbug phone and the only additional cost is the airtime you use. In addition, you also get free access to an audio health library for pre-recorded health info.

Now you wouldn’t call in the case of an emergency, for that you always call 911. They’ll probably tell you this on the phone again as well.

jitterbug live nurse

How Does LiveNurse Work?

The award-winning Jitterbug LiveNurse service is provided for Jitterbug by FoneMed, a company based in Colorado Springs, CO. Their nurses are located in the US and Canada, with many of them in New Foundland, Canada. So you shouldn’t have to worry about being able to understand them, and they are trained to understand you.

Phone Nurse Triage

This area of nursing is known as phone nurse triage or telephone triage. During a call, nurses do not prescribe or diagnose your problem. Instead they methodically go through your symptoms starting with the most acute down to the least acute and recommend the next step to take whether it’s making an appointment or going to urgent care. When they’re doing this, they follow a standard protocol.

Schmitt Thompson Protocol

When the nurses ask their questions, they follow the Schmitt/Thompson protocol for phone nurse triage. Theses protocols are updated yearly and provide the questions and follow-up questions nurses should ask and also the advice they should give. About ten new protocols are added each year.

There are actually two sets of protocols. Barton Schmitt wrote the protocol for children, and David Thompson wrote the one for adults. In the case for Jitterbug owners, they would use the adult set. One advantage of this method is that rather than being generic, the protocol leads to advice that is tailored to you taking into account your age, gender, height, weight, etc.

Electronic Chart

The LiveNurse service like most telephone triage services will also maintain a personal electronic chart so that your previous calls can be taken into account.

Nurse Training

As you can see, this is a specialized area. FoneMed requires their nurses to have at least three years clinical experience and one full year of phone nurse triage experience.

What Happens When You Call?

When you call, you first connect to a customer service representative (one year experience required) who will collect or confirm your identity and demographic information. Then you and your info are passed on to the nurse who who will advise you.

Why You (May) Need It

The Jitterbug LiveNurse service has several advantages. Foremost among them is peace of mind. You know that you can get professional advice from a trained nurse at a reasonable cost wherever you are and whenever you want.

You may even end up saving time and money by avoiding unnecessary trips to the doctor or urgent care. When you do need to see a doctor, you will feel good that you’re doing the right thing.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you found this information useful. If you are a Jitterbug owner, you can sign up for the Jitterbug LiveNurse service by simply calling customer support.

If you or someone you know would be interested in purchasing a Jitterbug phone, take note: