Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
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Objective To determine the disclosure rate for abuse in the setting of an emergency department. Design Cross-sectional survey of women assessed for triage in the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods Nursing triage was used to determine disclosure rates for abuse. ⋯ Six percent of the women questioned in the study disclosed abuse. Triage for abuse was not done for 86 women because of the acuity of patient's condition, language barrier, presence of relatives, discomfort on the part of the nurse in asking the question, or the nurse being too busy. Conclusion A brief nursing triage question appears to be an efficient way of detecting abuse among women seen in the emergency department.
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Introduction A 72-hour observational pilot study was conducted at a large managed-care facility to determine what functions triage nurses fulfilled, how often they fulfilled these functions, and how much time was taken for these functions. Methods Patient arrival times, nursing activities, and patient dispositions were recorded. Activities were classified as either primary or nonprimary, according to defined triage purposes. ⋯ These interruptions notably increased pretriage waiting times for all patients who were interrupted but were most significant for patients with acuity levels 2 (p < 0.05) and 3 (p < 0.05). Number of interruptions and length of time spent waiting to see the triage nurses were significantly correlated (r = 0.69). Discussion Our study describes a method of evaluating triage nursing activities and suggests that some functions may contribute to delays in physician and nurse access.