Strategies to Enhance Knowledge and Practical Skills of Triage amongst Nurses Working in the Emergency Departments of Rural Hospitals in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose: Lack of knowledge and practical skills on triage remains a global problem, especially within rural hospitals, and very little is known about enhancing the knowledge and skills of emergency nursing staff in rural hospitals of South Africa. The objective was to describe the perceived strategies for enhancing knowledge and practices of triage among nurses working in the emergency departments (EDs) of rural hospitals in South Africa. Research methods: A descriptive qualitative research design was applied to achieve the research objective. A non-probability sampling method was applied to select 17 professional nurses from rural hospitals. An unstructured face-to-face interview method was used to collect data. Data collected were analyzed using Tesch’s method of data analysis. Results: The study findings highlighted the academic needs of nurses working in the ED of rural hospitals. Two themes emerged from this study; (1) The consistent description of the importance of triage training for emergency unit staff, and (2) The description of measures to enhance triage practices amongst emergency unit staff. Findings indicated that triage knowledge and practice remains a challenge, but with formulated strategies like continuous training by workshops, refresher courses, and offering a training module on triage, evaluation of developed guidelines and benchmarks is often enhanced. Conclusions: The study describes the strategies to enhance the conversion of knowledge and practice of triage amongst nurses working in the ED of rural hospitals. The paper argues that the knowledge and practical skills of nurses working in ED are enhanced through the provision of continuous training as workshops, triage module, evaluating the developed guidelines to implement triage, and benchmarking with other hospitals.

Effect of Pediatric Triage Education on Nurses' knowledge and Attitude at Emergency Department

“…that more than two-thirds of participants were between the ages of 20 and 30 (21) . Concerning gender, it was clear that the majority of nurses were females, this result was matched with Phukubye et al (2021) who stated that more than half of the studied nurses were females (22) . It was also found that two thirds of nurses were married.…”

Investigating the professional capability of triage nurses in the emergency department and its determinants: a multicenter cross-sectional study in Iran

“…Despite the importance of the role of standard triage and the triage nurses’ professional capability in saving lives, no study has directly evaluated this concept; however, the results of the studies that assessed the professional knowledge and clinical skills of the nurses showed a moderate level of clinical skills [ 11 ]. Studies conducted in the world and Iran suggest that there are serious concerns in these areas so that lack of professional knowledge and clinical skills in triage nurses has received attention as a global problem [ 14 ]. According to a study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2018, more than half of the participants had moderate levels of triage skill and its subdomains [ 6 ].…”

TINGKAT PENGETAHUAN PERAWAT TENTANG TRIASE EMERGENCY SEVERITY INDEX (ESI) DI UGD RSUD HADJI BOEJASIN PELAIHARI (The Level of Nurses Knowledge about Triase Emergency Severity Index (ESI) at Emergency Room RSUD Hadji Boejasin Pelaihari)

“…Triase juga meningkatkan alur pelayanan pasien di UGD dimana petugas triase akan memprediksi jenis jumlah sumber daya di UGD yang diperlukan guna mencapai keputusan akhir yang tepat yaitu pulang, rawat inap atau dipindahkan keluar dari UGD. Pengetahuan dan keterampilan diantara perawat gawatdarurat merupakan faktor penting untuk keperawatan yang berkualitas dalam perawatan di UGD (Phukubye et al, 2021).…”

“…Bagi petugas triase, pola pikir kritis ini sangat didukung oleh faktor intuisi atau insting. Hal tersebut dapat diperolah dengan bekal pengetahuan/ wawasan, pelatihan dan pengalaman (Phukubye et al, 2021).…”