Triage is the process of prioritizing patients in the emergency department ED. This study employed a quasi-experimental research design using a non-equivalent control group preβpost-test design to verify the effect of the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale KTAS education using role-playing on the knowledge of triage, triage performance ability, and triage competency in nursing students. Participants were 78 fourth-year nursing students from Shinseong University in South Korea; 39 were assigned to the experimental group, and 39 to the control group.
The intervention was conducted for three weeks, from January 31 to February 16, The experimental group received KTAS education through role-playing, whereas the control group received triage education through lectures.
This study demonstrated that KTAS education using role-playing was more effective in improving triage knowledge and performance ability than traditional lecture methods for nursing students.
Triage education programs should be developed considering the effectiveness of various teaching methods. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: I have attached the data file as a supporting information. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Globally, emergency departments EDs face the critical issue of overcrowding, which is largely attributed to an influx of non-emergency cases. Overcrowding in EDs strains resources, delays urgent treatment, and hampers service efficiency [ 1 ]. Triage is a critical and challenging task performed by ED nurses [ 3 , 4 ]; however, systematic training programs that can improve the triage decision-making skills of triage nurses in South Korea are not available.
