Is there a triage sieve knowledge and application gap between clinical team leaders and their team members?

Introduction

Ambulance service team leaders may be required to provide organisational leadership at complex incidents, such as a mass-casualty incident involving triage sieve. It may be expected that team leaders have a greater understanding of, and should be able to better apply their skills, than their team members during such an incident. The objective of this study was to determine if team leaders have a higher theoretical knowledge and better triage sieve application skills than their team members.

Methods

Team leaders were allotted into one of two groups: the first (control) group completed a questionnaire without any supporting documentation (ie. aide-memoir), whereas the second (intervention) group completed the same questionnaire, as the control group, but utilising supportive documentation.

Results

The results show that the team leaders from the control group achieved significantly better results than their team members when completing a questionnaire, without the use of supportive documentation. There was no significant difference between team leaders from the intervention group and their team members when completing the same questionnaire using supportive documentation.

Conclusion

It has been shown that the use of printed supportive material in the form of an aide-memoir decreases the knowledge and application gap between team leaders and their team members, and increases triage sieve accuracy. The results from this study reinforces the results from previous studies, showing that supporting documentation should be used to ensure greater triage sieve accuracy rates and thereby reducing under- and over-triage rates.