Triage Nursing Essay Example
Triage Nursing Essay Example

Triage Nursing Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (704 words)
  • Published: November 23, 2016
  • Type: Essay
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Triage nursing requires an experienced RN with the ability to act quickly and competently in an emergency situation. There are four criteria that make up triage. A red tag symbolizes a patient with injuries that must be treated immediately in order to survive. A yellow tag is reserved for those with injuries that do require medical treatment, but can be postponed. A green tag describes the “walking wounded,” or a patient with only minor injuries. A black tag is used for those in which death is imminent. This system of color coding makes for an organized treatment plan in what would otherwise be a caotic situation.

In the mock disaster assignment, I was assigned the role of a Registered Nurse. I was in the yellow tag room, where I was respo

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nsible for rapid patient assessment upon arrival. I worked with a team of nurses to come up with the best treatment possible for our patient. I used my nursing knowledge to evaluate each patient appropriately. By being a nurse in the yellow tag room, I learned a great deal about the triage process. Green and yellow tag patients can be quite hard to distinguish between at times. For example, I was given a patient tagged yellow that had a fractured arm.

This patient had no complaints of pain, and had a pulse in her extremity. Thinking that this patient was stable, I quickly moved her to the green tag room to make more room for incoming patients. The patient was quickly sent back to the yellow tag room, with the complaint that only weak pulses were present. As I thought furthe

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about my patient scenario, I was able to understand the process behind why this patient would be considered a yellow tag. Although a fracture may seem to be quite stable on a large scale, it does need to be treated in a timely manner for various reasons.

I realized that tagging a patient is not always as clear-cut as it may seem. You truly must consider every aspect of the patient’s symptoms in order to triage them correctly. I now understand why such a skilled nurse is required to perform this duty. While I consider the mock disaster a valuable educational experience, there are several things I would suggest improving. One thing I felt that was unfortunate was not everyone got to play the role of a nurse. While I’m sure getting to be a wounded patient was exciting, the educational value for this role just wasn’t present.

These students were not required to critically think as those who played the role of the nurse were. My suggestion would be allowing the lower level students participate as patients. I believe students taking NUR 103 would greatly benefit by being a patient. Patient assessment is a big topic in this course, and I believe these students would greatly benefit from seeing how a rapid assessment is performed. It would also be a great experience for them to see fifth semester students using advanced critical thinking.

Another area for improvement would be the utilization of patient equipment. In addition to writing on a post it note what our interventions would be, we should also have an equipment station available. I believe selecting the proper

tools need to take care of our patient would be very beneficial. One of my fears is being in an emergent situation and not grabbing the proper equipment I would need. It can be easy to become flustered in a situation such as this, and quickly thinking through needed tools is vital. Being able to select these devices would enhance critical thinking as well.

I am aware that the cost of equipment is not feasible for us to have everything we need. However, you could always construct some “pretend” items out of craft materials to allow us the experience. The mock disaster day was wonderful, and I am grateful to be allowed the experience. I am a visual learner, and seeing this process really helped me to better understand emergent and triage nursing. I would strongly advise continuing this simulation for many years to come. Great job to the faculty for making this such an organized an exciting experience!

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