Triage?

[bunnylovinggrl]

I work at a doctor's office, and the medical assistants use the word "triage" so loosely. To them it means just taking the patient's back into the room and taking their vitals. I have been correcting them, but they still tell the patients that they are "triaging" them. Should I keep correcting them?

In my old job, it was called "rooming". I would "room patients" when I took them back to take their vitals. I'm just concerned that someday they will write on their resume that they "triaged" patients, and then end up at a job expected to actually be triaging patients and being in over their head. Is it ok for them to keep telling patients that they are "triaging them"?

At your facility, what do you call it when you take patients back into the room and just take their vitals?

[Wuzzie]

Checking in or rooming. Triage is French for "to sort" so unless they are pulling back patients in order of the severity of their illness, no, they are not triaging but is this the hill you want to die on?

[cleback]

I would have the manager address it at a staff meeting. Maybe I'm overly paranoid but triage includes assessment, which may be outside their scope of practice. If you have a regulatory body come in and hear that, you probably don't want to have to explain that it's not actually triage.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

If a future employer cannot figure it out that is their problem.

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

If this is your biggest issue - fantastic.

It is not worth dying on a hill for this.....it is not your concern about their imaginary future employment.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Medical assistants may not even know the true meaning of "triage." Lots that post here don't know how much they don't know. I think anyone hiring for a true triage position would require more than MA experience anyway, so it probably doesn't matter. Every time they say they've triaged in the situation you are describing, it just underlines their stupidity.

[Crush]

I've only heard it called checking in.

[klone, MSN, RN]

We called it rooming. Agree that triage is assessment, which MAs cannot do.

[Davey Do]

the medical assistants use the word "triage" so loosely. To them it means just taking the patient's back into the room... I have been correcting them, but they still tell the patients that they are "triaging" them....

In my old job, it was called "rooming". I would "room patients" when I took them back...

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[JKL33]

Agree that triaging is not what they're doing, and that triage is not within their scope of practice anyway. That said, I'm pretty sure it's probably "workplace incivility" or bullying or insulting the MAs or some such thing to point out someone else's misunderstanding, so let those responsible worry about it if they choose.

[ThePsychWhisperer, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP]

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You never fail to make me chuckle

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

I first have to say that I went to my PCP's office last week--the MA (with "Medical Assistant" in big letters on her badge) said "my name is Sally. I'm going to be your nurse today." I choose not to say anything, but kinda annoying.

Taking VS is just that--taking VS--not triage. I've never really been triaged, per se, at a doctor's office. The receptionist, MA, etc., look at me to make sure it does not appear that I am actively (quickly) dying, but I would not call that triage. In the OP's case, however, I don't think it really makes that much of a difference, and I don't see the benefit of making a big deal of it.