CHAPTER 6: RURAL AND REMOTE TRIAGING
CHAPTER 6: RURAL AND REMOTE TRIAGING
Statement of purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the unique characteristics of the rural and remote emergency nursing environment and discuss how these characteristics may impact upon the assessment of clinical urgency in triage practice. Through reading the content and participating in the learning activities, nurses will identify strategies to promote accurate and consistent use of the ATS within the rural context.
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, participants will have enhanced knowledge of the rural and remote emergency nursing environment and of how this environment differs from the urban context, as well as an ability to perform accurate and consistent assessment of clinical urgency using the ATS within the rural and remote context.
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Learning objectives
• Identify unique differences between urban and rural triage practices.
• Discuss how these differences and challenges may impact, negatively or positively, on the performance of triage in a rural environment.
• Identify and discuss strategies to support the rural triage practitioner in the accurate and consistent use of the ATS in their environment.
• Demonstrate accurate and consistent application of the ATS within the rural and remote context.
Key points
• The triage process always involves the same skills and decision-making processes, regardless of where it is performed.
• The contextual factors of rural or remote nursing practice may influence or impact upon the triage assessment process.
• The ATS‘ time-to-treatment’ recommendations refer to the ideal maximum time that a patient in that category should wait for assessment and treatment. Local inability to meet these recommendations does not change the patient’ s triage category, which is allocated according to the need for, not the availability of, emergency care.
• Rural triage is often a role undertaken as part of the general responsibilities of the rural nurse.
• Although the numbers and the casemix of patients that present to rural and remote EDs may be smaller than those in urban EDs, the full range of conditions and urgency may present.
Department of Health and Ageing – Emergency Triage Education Kit