Study on the level of knowledge and performance of North Khuzestan medical emergency 115 personnel on pre-hospital triage

Triage is one of the most important managerial and decision-making concepts in emergency. Triage brings the most benefit to the greatest number of patients. In this regard, the present study was conducted to determine the level of knowledge and performance of medical emergency staff on pre-hospital triage.

This descriptive study was carried out on 144 subjects of medical emergency staff of North Khuzestan selected through simple random sampling; data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire, including five demographic questions, fifteen questions on triage knowledge, and nineteen questions on triage performance, the reliability of which was evaluated by re-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. Data were then analyzed by independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation analysis using SPSS18 statistical software.

The mean age of subjects and the years of experience was 31.32 ± 3.9 and 4.20 ± 2.68 years respectively. The mean triage knowledge score (5.69 ± 2.5 out of a total score of 15), as well as triage performance (5.78 ± 3.2 out of a total score of 19) were found to be in a poor level.

Lack of knowledge and poor performance of medical emergency staff in terms of pre-hospital triage can be due to lack of a national guideline in the country's medical emergency, and, hence, the authorities are recommended to make attempts to resolve this problem.