Triage Situation and Factors Influence its Decision –Making from Personnel Opinion in Emergency Departments in Tabriz, 2006.

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Triage is one of the most important concepts in emergency department. The goal of triage is emergency departments is rapid assessment of patients with urgent conditions and prioritizing care for all patients. Triage is a complex process involving decision –making under uncertainty in an environment emotion lead to due to emergency circumstances, emergency departments have an important role in delivery of health care services in a communities and treatment of people with injuries and those who have numerous problems. There is less information and studies in this filed. Undoubtedly, we can have important effective steps for quality promotion in emergency department organization via surgery about triage system. Methodology: This survey is a descriptive study which was performed on 176 emergency physician managers and nurses working in emergency departments in Tabriz. The sample had been selected by census. Data gathering instrument was questionnaire consisted of six sections based on the goals of the study. Data analysis was done by using descriptive statistics and SPSS version 14.0. Results: A total of 89% of questionnaires were returned. 66.9% of the respondents reported that there were not triage system in the emergency department. 68.8% of them declared that there are not a specialized nurses for emergency department. Only 13.37% of respondents reported that they passed triage education programs/ 68.1% of respondents reported that there is not triage scale in the emergency department. 86% of respondents declared that patient's arrival time in the emergency department recorded. 61.15% of respondents agreed that triage should be performed by a nurse. 37.6% of respondents declared that IV access is the greatest intervention of triage nurse. In this study, the respondents reported that the most important causes of triage delays is a lack of nursing staff with 65% and increased patient presenters with 50.6% respectively. The findings indicated that experience (mean rank 2.4) is the most important personnel factor, and crowed of ward 59.2% is the most important non –personnel factor related to environment, and vital signs (mean rank 2.01) is the most important non –personnel factor related to patients from respondents opinions about decision –making. Discussion and Conclusion: The finding of this study provide a rich description of current triage process along with the nature of clinical reasoning task performed by triage nurses. In contrast to similar studies in several other countries, this study shows that emergency departments in Tabriz do not adhere well to the established standards, triage scales and guidelines about triage in emergency care. Further research on emergency department triage, especially in the areas of personnel performing triage, triage scales and standards and guidelines are recommended.