"I Was Here First, Why Did They Go Before Me": Examining Patients'Perceptions of Priority in a Psychometric Study of Emergency Department Triage.

INTRODUCTION: Unrealistic patient expectations for wait times can lead to poor satisfaction. This study's dual purpose was: (1) to address disparities between patients' perceived priority level and the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) assigned by emergency room triage nurses; and (2) to evaluate validity and reliability of using the Patient Perception of Priority to be Seen Survey (PPPSS) to investigate patient expectations for emergency department urgency. METHODS: A two-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental approach compared patient urgency opinions to nurse urgency ratings with and without a scripted educational intervention. This tested how closely patient perceptions were related to triage nurse ratings. RESULTS: Reliability for the PPPSS was acceptable (reliability = 0.75). Patients who were rated lower urgency on the ESI by triage nurses tended to self-report higher urgency (rho = -0.44, P < .01). Attitudes were more consistent in the posttest patient group who were exposed to the scripted verbal description of emergency department procedures (χ2 (1, N = 352) = 8.09, P < .01). Patients who disagreed with emergency nurse scores tended to be younger on average (eg, < 40 years old; rho = 0.69, P < .01). Male identified patients tended to be rated both by nurses and themselves as higher urgency (beta = 0.18, P = .02). DISCUSSION: We recommend the PPPSS for nurses and researchers to quickly assess patient expectations. Additionally, promoting patient understanding through a scripted educational strategy about the ESI system may also result in improvements in communication between patients and nurses.

Prone positioning in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a condition with a high morbidity and mortality rate, and treatment is often long and costly. Prone positioning is a rarely used intervention for patients with this syndrome, although research suggests it may be effective. A literature search was undertaken to examine the effects of prone positioning on oxygenation, morbidity and mortality in patients with ARDS. It revealed that prone positioning, when used with low tidal volume ventilation over an extended period, may reduce mortality rates in selected patients with severe ARDS. The selection of patients with severe ARDS for prone positioning should be done on a case-by-case basis to maximise benefits and minimise complications. Further research is required on the use of prone positioning in patients with severe ARDS to support or disclaim the therapy's use in practice, and to compare confounding variables such as ideal prone duration and mechanical versus manual pronation.