Improving Children Emergency Care Satisfaction through Standardized Approach of Pediatric Triage

Abstract

Triage is the process of determining the priority of emergency patients' treatments based on the severity of their condition. Pediatric triage assessment is a rapid, focused evaluation to gather pertinent subjective and objective data to determine the severity of illness. This can be achieved through standardized triage approach. Patient satisfaction is considered an important indicator of the quality of care from the perspective of the consumer. Satisfied patients are more likely to comply with treatment, take an active role in their own care. The study aims to improve children emergency care satisfaction through standardized approach of pediatric triage. This is a quasi-experimental study design, which was carried out at Pediatric Emergency Department at Al-Menshawy General Hospital, Tanta City. Purposive sample of one hundred children were involved in the study. They were divided into two groups' fifty children in each one. Data was collected from the period of June to the end of September 2013. Two tools were used to collect data, the first tool was a questionnaire sheet used to collect socio-demographic data. The second tool was a Consumer Emergency Satisfaction Scale (CECSS). The results of this study revealed that, 60% of the triage group was satisfied by emergency visit compared to 26% of the non-triage group. There was a statistical significant difference regarding total nursing care and total education between the triage and non-triage group. It is recommended to apply triage nursing care at all Emergency Departments.