The Current Status quo of Triage Nurses Competency

The Current Status quo of Triage Nurses Competency and Related Factors in the Emergency Department n n 英文摘要 Beasuse the triage is usually perfomed by nurses in the emergency department; therefore, the accuracy of triage level assignment is important because it is not only affected the patient waiting time, but also associated with the quality of patient care. The aims of this study were 1) to understand the status quo of the triage nurses competency, 2) to understand compare the differences between demographics of nurses, level of hospitals, and triage education training, and nurses’ triage scores, 3) to predict the impact factors related to nurses’ competency scores. The design was descriptive comparison study using cross-sectional questionnaire to survey nurses from 30% of hospitals in northern of Taiwan. Two instruments were used in this study, including self-developed emergency triage questionnaire and triage competency assessment tool. The validity of these two instruments was assessed by content analysis. Only the triage competency assessment tool was also assessed by internal reliability test and test-retest. The result KR-20 was 0. 83. Data were analyzed by percentage, mean, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and regression analysis. A total of 279 nurses participated in this study. The results were indicated that nurses triage competency was influenced by nurses’ age, working experience, years of working experience in the emergency department, type of certifications, level of clinical ladder. However, a significant difference was not found (p<. 01) from above variables. Moreover, a significant difference was not found between level of education and gender and nurses triage competency. Nurses who work in the medical center have higher scores of triage than those of non-medical centers. A significant difference was also found between the hours of education training and type of continuing nursing education, and the contents of education and nurses’ triage competency (p<. 05). For the regression analysis, factors related to the nurses working experience in the emergency department, types of certifications, level of hospital accreditation, triage assistants, hours of education training were found related to nurses’ triage competency. The variance of explanation was 41. 6%. The findings not only provide information to nursing resource management and continuing nursing education, but also to assist government to set health policy and to resource allocation to meet the needs of public.