The Effect of Start Triage Education on Knowledge and Practice of Emergency Medical Technicians in Disasters

Introduction: Pre-hospital triage is one of the most fundamental concepts in emergency management. Limited human resource changes triage to an inevitable solution in the management of disasters. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of education of simple triage and rapid treatment (START) in the knowledge and practice of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) employees of Eastern Azerbaijan. Methods: This is a pre-and post-intervention study conducted on two hundred and five (205) of employees of EMS sector, in the disaster and emergency management center of Eastern Azerbaijan Province, 2015. The utilized tool is a questionnaire of the knowledge and practice of individuals regarding START triage. The questionnaire was filled by the participants pre- and post-education; thereafter the data were analyzed using SPSS 13 software. Results: The total score of the participants increased from 22.02 (4.49) to 28.54 (3.47). Moreover, the score of sections related to knowledge of the triage was a necessity and the mean score of the section related to the practice increased from 11.47 (2.15) to 13.63 (1.38), and 10.73 (3.57) to 14.93 (2.78), respectively, which were statistically significant. Conclusion: In this study, it was found that holding the educational classes of pre-hospital triage before the disasters is effective in improving the knowledge and practice of employees such as EMS technicians and this resulted to decreased error in performing this process as well as reduced overload in hospitals.