Date of Conferral

2019

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Amelia Nichols

Abstract

Triage nursing assessment supports nursing professionals in delivering safe and effective patient care in emergency departments. This staff education project was driven by an observation of inconsistencies in triage among emergency department (ED) nursing staff. The purpose of the project was to improve the triage assessment knowledge of ED nurses. Specifically, the aim was to determine if educating ED nursing staff about using the Emergency Severity Index (ESI), a 5-level triage algorithm and a previously developed tool, would improve nurse knowledge in the triage process. Following discussion with the ED nursing manager at a hospital, a presentation on the ESI was developed and pre- and posttest questions were used to assess and enhance the nursing staff members triage knowledge. The 16 members of the ED nursing staff attended the ESI education session, which was preceded by a pretest and followed by a posttest. The pretest results ranged from 68% to 96% on the 25 items, and the posttest resulted in an increase in test scores. The p value on the sample t test was 0.000, which demonstrated that the training was effective. The outcomes of this project might promote positive social change by helping to ensure that nurses in the ED can improve triage assessment

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