Guiding patients to appropriate care: developing Japanese outpatient triage nurse competencies.

Guiding patients to appropriate care: developing Japanese outpatient triage nurse competencies. Nagoya J Med Sci. 2019 Nov;81(4):597-612 Authors: Usui M, Yamauchi T Abstract Japanese patients often seek hospital services without a primary provider's referral. A triage nurse who is the initial point of contact for a patient is challenged with the task of expertly evaluating the urgency of the condition and selecting the appropriate specialty service for every patient's needs. A triage nurse must also recognize any conditions requiring emergency medical services instead of a specialty outpatient service. A modified Delphi method was used to establish expert consensus regarding triage nursing competencies for secondary and higher-level health care facilities in Japan. The initial Delphi round was completed using a questionnaire of 80 competencies that were evaluated by 85 Japanese nurse experts with in-depth knowledge of triage and/or the current Japanese hospital system. Four additional competency items were added based on the experts' suggestions for a total of 84 items. The experts rated these items on a 7-point Likert scale based on importance. Minimal attrition rate yielded consistent and rich results. The results were analyzed to identify items rated as very important by the majority. Twenty-two items were included in the final list of competencies. The authors then refined the language and reorganized the items into four proposed...
Source: Nagoya Journal of Medical Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Nagoya J Med Sci Source Type: research