Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing (중환자간호학회지)

Korean Society of Critical Care Nursing (한국중환자간호학회)
권호 표지

Thinking Strategies of Triage Nurses' Decision Making in the Emergency Department: Think Aloud Study

응급실 중증도 분류 간호사의 의사결정과정에 나타난 사고전략: 소리내어 생각하기

  • Moon, Sun Hee (College of Nursing, Seoul National University) ;
  • Park, Yeon Hwan (College of Nursing, The Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University)
  • Received : 2016.01.09
  • Accepted : 2016.02.16
  • Published : 2016.06.30
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Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify thinking strategies in the complicated decision-making process based on real patient-based data of triage nurses in the emergency department (ED). Methods: This study used the 'think aloud' method to collect data from 8 triage nurses from one general hospital ED in South Korea. The data were analyzed with protocol analysis using thinking strategies. Results: The triage process was divided into three stages. The first stage consisted of 8 thinking strategies, including searching for information. They used intuition based on directly observed concepts for identifying a crisis. The second stage consisted of 17 thinking strategies related to the decision-making process. They assessed patients and generated a hypothesis to try to understand their health problems through analytic thinking. The third stage consisted of 10 thinking strategies, including qualifying. They considered the situation of the ED and properly triaged the patients. During the triage process, they frequently used judging the value and searching for information on 17 thinking strategies. Conclusions: Triage nurses demonstrated various connected thinking strategies for each stage. Based on our results, further studies should be done to develop a triage education program.

Keywords

References

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