The Influence of Successfully Completed Triage Courses and Work Experience of Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians on Their Perception of Patient Disposition

Abstract

Introduction This study assessed the impact of various one-day workshops and the work experience of advanced emergency medical technicians (AEMTs) on their prediction of patient disposition. Methods We conducted a prospective study on 267 patient transport missions to the emergency department. During the study, convenience sampling was used in all the clinical shifts of the lead author. The AEMTs completed the questionnaires, which comprised of the number of successfully completed workshops; other training courses; work experience and their perception of the patient’s disposition. The latter was compared to the ultimate disposition of patients determined by emergency medicine specialists. Results The respective figures for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 86%, 80%, 33% and 66% on predicting patient disposition for AEMTs who passed fewer workshops; and 79%, 76%, 34% and 96% for the participants with less than 4 years’ work experience. The Kappa coefficient for the agreement between AEMTs’ prediction and ultimate patient disposition was 0.387. Conclusion The number of triage courses was not positively effective in the prediction of patient disposition by AEMTs; the number of years of work experience did not make a difference either. The AEMTs were fair in their prediction of patient disposition in comparison with the emergency medicine specialists.