Triage Practices

NurseJacqui · Aug 26, 2004

In my personal experience, you have to be careful relying on signs that say "please notify nurse if you are having SOB or CP". I once went to an urgent care and sat in the waiting room for >1hour. My complaint? A heartrate of 38 (over betablocked). I never had chest pain but chest pressure. (I am an RN but didn't want to bother people because I truly felt it wasn't an emergency). Now aren't you glad I'm not triaging any patients :imbar

I have a hx of SVT and I have never taken any beta blockers because usually it breaks on its own but one particular time it was persistent and I was starting to get a little lightheaded and SOB. I went to the ER closest to my house. The triage nurse put me in the waiting room with a HR of 185, I guess she dismissed me as anxiety. I never told her I was an ER nurse. By the time the doctor called me an hour later it had finally broke so I just left. I would NEVER put someone with a HR like that in the waiting room. But that's just me. :uhoh3:

veetach · Aug 29, 2004

we see 125-175 patients per day, we have one triage nurse 24/7 and one tech from 7a-11p. Our patients sign in at a window, (the triage RN can at this time do a quick check to make sure the patient can sit in the waiting room without problems,) and then they are called back in order of severity of c/o. Our registration personnel do not see the pt until they have been seen by an RN.

Our ER is most always full, and triaging has become quite an art. A good triage nurse correlating with a good charge nurse is the key in our er. When the patient is triaged, we enter their data in the computer (name, age, c/o) and do vital signs and a triage assessment, then they either go to the back to be put in a room or go to the waiting room. In an ideal world, our patients in the waiting room are supposed to be reassessed by the triage nurse every hour. (this never happens)

currently we operate on a three level triaging system, but the 5 level is waiting in the wings...