Knowledge of staff nurses regarding triage system

Introduction: Triage is the process of rapidly screening sick patients when they first arrive in the hospital and of placing them in one of the groups like those with emergency signs (who require immediate treatment), those with priority signs (who should be given priority while waiting in the queue, so that they can be assessed and treated without delay) and those with non-urgent signs (who have neither emergency nor priority signs).
Methodology: In this experimental study, 50staff nurses were selected as the samples for the study by using non- probability convenience sampling. The data was collected by using structured knowledge questionnaire on triage. Reliability of the structured knowledge questionnaire on triage was determined by using inter rater reliability test and it was0.86. Data analysis were performed by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. SPSS-17 software was used and P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
Result: In the pre test, majority of the staff had inadequate knowledge regarding triage system (100%) and in the post test, majority of the staff had moderate knowledge regarding triage system (60%).Over all 60%of the samples had adequate knowledge in the post test.
Discussion: The result shows that there was improvement in knowledge regarding triage system after implementation of structured teaching programme on triage which was calculated at 0.05 level of significance. So, it is concluded that the structured teaching programme on triage was effective to improve the knowledge of staff nurses.