A Qualitative Study of the Triage of Patients with Non-Traumatic Acute Abdomen

Abstract

Objective: To explore the work experience of medical staff in the emergency department of a general hospital in the triage of patients with non-traumatic acute abdomen to formulate corresponding intervention measures and branch evaluation tools. Methods: With descriptive phenomenology as the research method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the medical staff in a tertiary hospital in Nanjing from February 1st to 10th, 2023, and Colaizzi seven-step analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 17 emergency medical staff were interviewed in this study. Four themes were derived from the analysis of the data: the etiology of acute abdomen is complex, so it is difficult to categorize them: acute abdomen requires immediate treatment, but the treat will be delayed if the categorization is inaccurate; the high pressure of nurses and the accuracy in categorizing the patients are problems that should be addressed. Conclusion: The categorization of patients with non-traumatic acute abdomen is challenging. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out corresponding intervention and formulate appropriate departmental evaluation tools to improve the accuracy of categorization of patients with acute abdomen.