"Triaging out" children with minor illnesses from an emergency department by a triage nurse: where do they go?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether parents of children with minor illnesses actually seek care after they receive advice and are referred from an emergency department by an ED triage nurse.
DESIGN: Descriptive study of 100 parents with children who were given advice and referred from an urban, pediatric tertiary care center by an ED triage nurse.
METHODS: A 10-item telephone survey was designed to determine whether parents took their children to the primary health care provider to whom they were likely to be referred. Parental perceptions of the severity of the child's medical problem, of the nurse's understanding of the problem, and of the satisfaction with the referral process were analyzed with Fisher's exact test.
RESULTS: Most (79%) of the subjects did not seek care with a primary health care provider per referral. However, 81% of parents believed the triage nurse understood the child's problem (rated 4 or 5 on a 5-point Likert scale in which 5 meant "completely understood" the child's problem) and 79% were satisfied with being referred from the emergency department (rated 4 or 5 on a 5-point Likert scale in which 5 meant "most satisfied" with being "triaged out").
CONCLUSION: Parental perceptions of the ED triage nurse's understanding of the child's complaint has a significant positive relationship on the parent's satisfaction with the advice and referral directives given by the nurse for the health care needs of the child. No children in this study experienced a worsening in their condition. Hence the ED triage nurse can be a valuable resource in educating and fostering primary health care practices within the community.