POLISH PERSPECTIVE: THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY SEVERITY INDEX TRAINING ON TRIAGE PRACTITIONERS' KNOWLEDGE

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the national government initiative Emergency Severity Index version 4.0 validated triage training on triage practitioners ' knowledge and accuracy. Methods: This pre/post intervention study evaluated the knowledge of triage practitioners, who constituted 30% of employees trained by the national program, in 74 emergency departments across Poland in 2020. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate the impact of the triage training. Results: No signi ficant differences in triage knowledge were found based on experience, length of ED service, or previous training. Training resulted in increased accuracy (61.3% vs 81.1%) and decreased overtriage and undertriage. Participants signi ficantly reduced errors and improved Emergency Severity Index guideline -based case evaluations, especially for Emergency Severity Index 1-3 cases, with the most notable improvements observed among those without prior triage experience. The training signi ficantly improved interrater reliability. Discussion: The Emergency Severity Index pilot training demonstrated a signi ficant improvement in the accuracy of triage practitioners. Emergency Severity Index level 4 has been identi fied as a challenging area to learn, as well as yielding promising results in the acquisition of knowledge across levels 1 and 2, among less experienced practitioners.