• Stefano Bambi, Marco Ruggeri, Sandra Sansolino, Massimo Gabellieri, Sabrina Tellini, Monica Giusti, Elisa Ciulli, Federica Franchi, Laura Petrocchi, Mauro Olivi, Raffaele Carlo Gravili, Paola Biancalana, Andrea Millanti, Luca Martini, and Paola Sgrevi.
• Emergency and Trauma Intensive Care Unit, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Careggi, Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Florence, Italy. Electronic address: stebam@hotmail.it.
• Int Emerg Nurs. 2016 Nov 1; 29: 32-37.

ObjectivesWe explored the time employed by nurses to perform the ED triage process in the clinical setting. Moreover, we assessed the influences on triage timing performance exerted by variables related to nurses, local EDs' features, and by interruptions.MethodsThis is a multicenter prospective descriptive-explorative study performed in 11 EDs of the Tuscany region (Italy), using a 5 tier triage system. The sample was made up of 1/3 of nurses working in each ED. Sampling was performed by a stratified proportional randomization (length of service classes: <5 years; 5-10 years; >10 years). Triage nurses were observed during their triage work-shift.ResultsIn 2014, 120 nurses were observed, during 1114 triage processes. The timings of triage phases were: waiting time to triage, median 2.55 min (IQR 1.28-5.03 min; range 0.1-56.25 min); triage duration, median 2.58 min (IQR 1.36-4.35 min; range 0.07-50 min). 400 interruptions were recorded (35.9%). In 9.9% there were 2 interruptions at least. There were significant differences in the medians of triage duration among the years of nurses' triage experience (P < 0.001). The presence of interruption was significantly associated with the increasing of the time intervals in all the triage phases (P < 0.0001). Finally, we recorded significant differences in all the triage time phases between the EDs.ConclusionWe found that the nurses triage time performances are similar to other triage systems in the world.Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

24 keywords...

hide…