| dc.description.abstract | Triaging is characterized as assigning patients a priority based on the severity of their
disease and giving the majority of patients the best treatment possible in the shortest
amount of time feasible. Long waiting times in the emergency room is a problem in
most hospitals in the world. Some of the health facilities have no Emergency
Department where triaging can be done. In developing Countries Triage in Emergency
Department consist of a weak link. The study's objective was to evaluate frontline
health providers’ competence in triaging at the Emergency Departments. Study
objectives were; to assess triage competence among frontline health providers, to
determine the health provider factors influencing triaging and to examine the health
institutional factors influencing triaging at the emergency departments. Selected
hospitals in Western Kenya's Kakamega County served as the study's sites.; a
descriptive cross section design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was
used to involve all health care providers to include doctors, nurses and clinical officers.
The study participants were 183 healthcare professionals operating inn emergency
unit. Fissures Equation et al. was used to arrive at the sample volume. Quantitative
information was gathered via a pretested personal questionnaire. Data was input and
coded. into Excel files that have been cleaned and examined using a statistical program
of version for social sciences 24. Chi square, fissures In the data analysis, precise, P
value, frequency, mean, and percentages were used.. The study findings revealed that
high competency was observed in identification of a patient with respiratory distress
89%, assess patient for temperature 68.3% and collaboration with physician to give
emergency drugs. Low skills were observed insertion of cervical collar 61.2% and
performing oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal airway 73.2%. More than 74.9%. of
the responders had employment in Emergency Department for less than five years and
most of them were not flexible to work in the department at a P value of < 0.07.Health
facility factors that influenced triaging included shortage of staff P value < 0.001, lack
of training P value of< 0.001 and lack of guidelines and policies that support triaging
P value of < 0.007. Therefore, the researcher recommended that, the hospital
management to ensure training opportunities for staff on Three levels of life support:
Basic, Advanced Cardiac, and Advanced Trauma Sustain Life. The hospital
management to look into deployment of staff with experience in emergency
departments to mentor the less experienced. The National and County Government
management to consider human resource issues like formulation of guidelines, staffing
and availability of equipment that support triage. | en_US |
