• Nicola Parenti, Maria Letizia Bacchi Reggiani, Diego Sangiorgi, Vito Serventi, and Leopoldo Sarli.
• University of Parma, Italy.
• World J Emerg Med. 2013 Jan 1;4(1):20-5.

BackgroundMost current triage tools have been tested among hospital nurses groups but there are not similar studies in university setting. In this study we analyzed if a course on a new four-level triage model, triage emergency method (TEM), could improve the quality of rating in a group of nursing students.MethodsThis observational study was conducted with paper scenarios at the University of Parma, Italy. Fifty students were assigned a triage level to 105 paper scenarios before and after a course on triage and TEM. We used weighted kappa statistics to measure the inter-rater reliability of TEM and assessed its validity by comparing the students' predictions with the triage code rating of a reference standard (a panel of five experts in the new triage method).ResultsInter-rater reliability was K=0.42 (95%CI: 0.37-0.46) before the course on TEM, and K=0.61 (95%CI: 0.56-0.67) after. The accuracy of students' triage rating for the reference standard triage code was good: 81% (95%CI: 71-90). After the TEM course, the proportion of cases assigned to each acuity triage level was similar for the student group and the panel of experts.ConclusionAmong the group of nursing students, a brief course on triage and on a new in-hospital triage method seems to improve the quality of rating codes. The new triage method shows good inter-rater reliability for rating triage acuity and good accuracy in predicting the triage code rating of the reference standard.

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