Assessment of Knowledge And Skills of Triaging and Associated Factors Among Nurses Working In Emergency Department of Governmental Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2016
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Triage is an essential function in emergency department. As there are increased
numbers of clients with life threatening traumatic injuries and non-traumatic cases in the
emergency department in Ethiopia, triage skill and knowledge is an essential competency
required for the nurses working in emergency department. Triage nurses’ knowledge has been
cited as an influential factor in triage decision-making, however there have been no study in
Addis Ababa hospitals undertaken to assess the knowledge and skills of triage among nurses
working in the emergency departments. This study therefore aimed at assessing knowledge and
skills of triage among nurses working in the emergency departments in Addis Ababa government
hospitals.
Objective: To assess the level of triaging skills and knowledge possessed by emergency nurse
and associated factors at government hospitals in Addis Ababa from October 2015 to June 2016.
Methods: An institutional based cross-sectional study design was used for this study. Sample
size was calculated by using sample correction formula and sample size of 197 Emergency
nurses was obtained. The study participants were recruited using simple random sampling,
lottery methods. The data was collected using standardized instrument. The collected data was
coded and entered to window based statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version
22.0.Person correlation and multivariable linear regression was used to analysis the factors.
Results: Response rates of 95.4% were obtained from the study. More than half of the
participants (51.9%) were female and Orthodox religion follower accounts for 45% of
respondents. Nearly half of the respondents (54.5%) had low triage knowledge scores, with the
mean score being 20.71 (SD = 5.06). Greater than half of the subjects (52.9%) perceived their
overall triage skill to be at a moderate level 141.3 (SD = 20.87). strong, positive relationships
were found to exist between triage skill and triage knowledge (r = .68, p < .01) while moderate
positive relationship exist between triage skill and the three other factors. There is significant
relation between triage knowledge and triage skill (B=0.069, CI= (3.853, 15.724), P=0.001).
Conclusion and Recommendation; This finding suggests there is high inadequacy of training
and low knowledge among nurses working in emergency department. Hence they need
continuing education and training in order to improve their triage skill and triage knowledge.
Key words: triage skill, triage knowledge, work experience, training experience, triage
experience, emergency nurse
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Keywords
Triage skill, Triage knowledge, Work experience, Training experience