Triage * Triage classifies emergency patients for assessment and treatment priorities * Triage decisions require gathering objective and subjective data rapidly and effectively to determine the type of priority situation present * Emergent situations are potentially life-threatening; they include such conditions as respiratory distress or arrest, cardiac arrest, severe chest pain, seizures, hemorrhage, severe trauma resulting in open chest or abdominal wounds, shock, poisonings, drug overdoses, temperatures over 105°F (40.5°C), emergency childbirth, or delivery complications * Urgent situations are serious but not life-threatening if treatment is delayed briefly; they include such conditions as chest pain without respiratory distress, major fractures, burns, decreased level of consciousness, back injuries, nausea or vomiting, severe abdominal pain, temperature between 102 and 105°F (38.9 and 40.5° C), bleeding from any orifice, acute panic, or anxiety * Nonemergency situations are not acute and are considered minor to moderately severe; they include such conditions as chronic backache or other symptoms, moderate headache, minor burns, fractures, sprains, upper respiratory or urinary infections, or instances in which a patient is dead on arrival
Triage nursing involves the care of more injured individuals than the available resources can handle. Triage, which comes from ‘trier’, a French word meaning ‘to sort,’ is the system used by emergency and medical personnel when it is necessary to ration medical resources. Triage nurses can work at the scene of an accident, such as on a battlefield or at the scene of a major disaster site, like a train accident or building bombing. In some of the triage cases, patients require immediate transport to a hospital to save their lives, while other people might be too severely wounded to treat.
When a patient is