Disaster Triage

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Ok. I'm a little fuzzy on triage and disaster management. I understand the RPM but I can't seem to find anything that tells me what to do in a situation with children. If I have a 9month old, then his/her respirations could exceed 30 breaths per minute simply because it's his/her normal rate. Would he/she be a classified as immediate (red)? If they were under 30 and I continued with my assessement, when I arrive at mental status, I couldn't assess their ability to follow a command, so I would still classify them as immediate (red). I thought that the RPM method was to be rapid and it's clear cut. I'm not sure if I need to assess the child based on their normal respirations or if 30 breaths per minute is my guide no matter what. Need help with this.:confused:

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Specializes in Hospice.

Triage can be very confusing! START is another name for RPM triage. The algorhythm is made very simple so that it's easy to remember. Keep in mind, you probably will not know the baseline vitals for your patients. And for peds, when it comes to mental status it can be tricky. There is also a peds algorhythm, called JUMP START that addresses how to quickly assess the peds mental status, and also has a higher norm for the respiratory rate. However, not all places have implemented this protocol.

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Thank you both for replying. I took my exam and I actually got my triage questions correct. Thanks! :clpty:

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