Development of Nursing Guidelines for Triaging Patients According to Their Level of Urgency in Thauthen Hospital Nakhon Phanom Province

Abstract

     This action research aimed to develop and evaluate development of nursing guidelines for triaging patients according to their level of urgency in Thauthen hospital Nakhon Phanom province, period from November 2022-February 2023. The research team comprised 1) a group of 15 professionals involved in developing nursing practiced and 2) a group of 30 accident or emergency patients receiving treatment at the Emergency and Forensic Medicine Department in Tha Uthen Hospital, selected through purposive sampling. Research tools included a questionnaire for collecting the opinions of nursing professionals and a record form for documenting the implemented nursing practices in patient triage. Statistical analysis involved frequencies, percentages, mean (), standard deviation (S.D.), and compared the mean scores of the effectiveness assessment after the implementation of the developed nursing practices against the expected criterion of 80% by t-test.
     The research found that: 1. Process-oriented Results. 1.1 There was a nursing practice guideline for patient triaged according to the urgency level based on the MOPH ED., triage standard. 1.2 There was a protocol for inspecting the performance of the patient triaged system.2. Outcome-oriented Results 2.1 Patients undergo symptom assessment and urgency level classification for treatment; 100% compliance. Triaged results show undertriage at 3.33% and overtriage at 6.67%. No incidents of triaged errors at the E level and above in the emergency room. Waiting times for physicians, categorized by triaged levels, met the established standards at 100%. 2.2 The effectiveness assessment of implementing the nursing practiced guideline for patient triaged shows a high level of compliance at 93.33% ( = 2.78, S.D. = 0.21). 2.3 After the development of the nursing practiced guideline, the average effectiveness score in implementing the patient triaged guideline exceeded the standard significantly (p < 0.01)