Question about triage

nursemomruns · Sep 14, 2005

I am a little confused about different things I have read so if someone could clear it up I would really appreciate it.
In triage with LIMITED staff and resources you follow order of Red, Yellow, Green and Black but in an ER where there is plenty of staff and resources do you see Black first, then red, yellow and green?

The colors depend on the hospital policy where you work. For instance, in an ER where I worked, the lowest priority was Brown and they were seen last. The Red, Yellow, Green and Black are for mass casualty incidents, where you are going to leave the hopeless cases to die because they use up too many resources. The ERs I have worked in use an Emergency Severity Index system, with numbers, not colors.

nursedaisy · Sep 14, 2005

The colors depend on the hospital policy where you work. For instance, in an ER where I worked, the lowest priority was Brown and they were seen last. The Red, Yellow, Green and Black are for mass casualty incidents, where you are going to leave the hopeless cases to die because they use up too many resources. The ERs I have worked in use an Emergency Severity Index system, with numbers, not colors.

I found the answer thanks.

mye614 · Sep 14, 2005

I found the answer thanks.

So, what was the answer you found? I'd like to know too since I'm taking my NCLEX-RN as well. Suzanne sent me an article about it but I don't think I read anywhere in the article once the patient is in the hospital. External/Internal disasters (like 9/11, katrina, fire etc...) you have to follow RED (critical with chance of survivors), YELLOW ( less critical that can wait), GREEN ( walking wounded ) and then BLACK (dead or unsalvageable)...But what about once they get transferred to the hosiptal? I'm kinda confused on this one too...I know I have to know because with my first NCLEX attenpt, I noticed that many of the questions I had were on disaster/triaging/prioritization. Thanks if you can let me know what you found out about it.

nursedaisy · Sep 14, 2005

So, what was the answer you found? I'd like to know too since I'm taking my NCLEX-RN as well. Suzanne sent me an article about it but I don't think I read anywhere in the article once the patient is in the hospital. External/Internal disasters (like 9/11, katrina, fire etc...) you have to follow RED (critical with chance of survivors), YELLOW ( less critical that can wait), GREEN ( walking wounded ) and then BLACK (dead or unsalvageable)...But what about once they get transferred to the hosiptal? I'm kinda confused on this one too...I know I have to know because with my first NCLEX attenpt, I noticed that many of the questions I had were on disaster/triaging/prioritization. Thanks if you can let me know what you found out about it.

Here are the notes that I have on the subject

If you are in a triage situation where there are limited resources and staff think about salvaging more patients. This means if you have 1 patiet who has just stopped breathing, 1 with an open fx, 1 with difficulty breathing and 1 pt with a minor laceration you would not see the pt who is not breathing first. You would prioritize the other patients who are still alive and see the not breathing patient last. However, if you have plenty of staff and resources then you would see the pt who has just stopped breathing first. Hopefully that makes sense.

mye614 · Sep 14, 2005

Here are the notes that I have on the subject
If you are in a triage situation where there are limited resources and staff think about salvaging more patients. This means if you have 1 patiet who has just stopped breathing, 1 with an open fx, 1 with difficulty breathing and 1 pt with a minor laceration you would not see the pt who is not breathing first. You would prioritize the other patients who are still alive and see the not breathing patient last. However, if you have plenty of staff and resources then you would see the pt who has just stopped breathing first. Hopefully that makes sense.

ok...let me see if I understood it right...In a situation where there is no or not enough staff and you are not in a hospital you would assess and tag the patients first...the one with difficulty breathing would be tagged as red, then the one with the open fracture would be tagged as yellow, then the one with the minor laceration green and black for the one who is not breathing. after tagging these patients you will then treat or transfer the red one first then the black one would be last since this patient is already dead or can no longer be saved...Did I get it right???