One-day triage course for nurses, it is essential

Azhough, Ramin; Shams Vahdati, Samad; Faraji, Fariba; Faraji, Malihe; Ghorbanian, Maryam; Ramouz, Ali; Tajoddini, Shahrad

One-day triage course for nurses, it is essential

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ramin Azhough ¹

Samad Shams Vahdati ²

Fariba Faraji ³

Malihe Faraji ³

Maryam Ghorbanian ⁴

Ali Ramouz ⁵

Shahrad Tajoddini ⁶

¹ Department of Surgery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

² Emergency Department, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

³ Sina Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

⁴ Medical Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

⁵ Student Research Committee and Medicine Faculty, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

⁶ Kerman Neuroscience Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

Objective: Triage procedure is one of the most important aspects of emergency departments as it has an undeniable role on the management of patients. It includes 5 categories based on the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) according to the condition of severity. For better decision making and management, it is important to have skillful and experienced nursing staff. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a one-day workshop on participants in terms of their triage knowledge improvement.
Methods: This is a pre- and post-test trial study. In this study all the nursing staff of Sina hospital participated. The workshop was conducted in a single day for 6 hours. During the one-day workshop, topics such as emergency triage and hospital triage were covered according to START and ESI. In order to evaluate triage knowledge, each participant completed a pre-test before the workshop, and a post-test after the workshop (15 questions). Data were analyzed with SPSS 15.0. Paired t test was applied for data analysis.
Results: Fifty-five nurses with the mean age of 35.72 ± 7.35 participated in the workshop. The analysis of the data, using paired t test based on the pre-test and post-test results, did not show any significant differences (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: This study suggests that a one-day workshop is not really effective and reliable for triage knowledge improvement. We propose longer planned workshops in order to train more skillful staff.

Keywords

triage

Emergency Department

ESI

START

Subjects

1. Woolwich, C. Nurse Triage. Accident & Emergency Theory Into Practice. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall; 2000. p. 475-84.

2. Karimi Rahjerdi H. The Introduction of Triage. 1th ed. Mehreamiralmomenin; 2007. p.108.

3. Travers DA, Waller AE, Bowling JM, Flowers DF. Comparison of 3-level and 5-level triage acuity systems. Acad Emerg Med 2000; 7(5): 522.

4. Baumann MR, Strout TD. Evaluation of the Emergency Severity Index (version 3) triage algorithm in pediatric patients. Acad Emerg Med 2005; 12(3): 219-24.

5. Bracken J. Triage. In: Sheehy SB, ed. Sheehy’s Emergency Nursing: Principles and Practice. Mosby; 2003. p. 75-82.

6. Grossman VG. Quick Reference to Triage. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2003.

7. Beveridge R, Clarke B, Janes L, Savage N, Thompson J, Dodd G. Canadian emergency department triage and acuity scale: implementation guidelines. Can J Emerg Med 1999; 1(suppl 3): S1–24.

8. Göransson KE, Ehrenberg A, Ehnfors M. Triage in emergency departments: national survey. J Clin Nurs 14(9): 1067-74.

9. Malekshahi F, Mohammad Zadeh M. Assessment of knowledge and activity of nurses in triage of patients with trauma admitted to Shohada Ashayer Hospital. Proceedings of the 6th nationwide congress of nursing and midwifery; the role of nurses and midwives in

emergency medicine. 2004 Feb 24-25; Tehran, Iran. [In Persian].

10. Haghdoust Z, Safavi M, Yahyavi H. Effect of triage education on knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in Poursina educational and therapeutic emergency center in Rasht. Holistic Nursing and Midwifery Journal 2009; 20(64): 14-20. [In Persian]

11. Taheri N, Kohan S, Haghdoost AA, Foroogh Ameri G. Assessment of knowledge and activity of nurses in triage field in hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, 2005 [PhD Thesis]. Kerman: Kerman Univesity of Medical Sciences; 2006.

12. Mirhaghi AH, Roudbari M. Survey on Knowledge Level of the Nurses about Hospital Triage. Iran J Crit Care Nurs 2011; 3(4): 167 74.

13. Sedaghat S, Aghababaeian H, Taheri N, Sadeghi Moghaddam A, Maniey M, Araghi Ahvazi L. Study on the level of knowledge and performance of North Khuzestan medical emergency 115 personnel on pre-hospital triage. J Crit Care Nurs 2012; 5(2): 103-8.