Effect of JumpSTART training on immediate and short-term pediatric triage performance

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of JumpSTART training in changing prehospital care personnel and/or school nursing personnel performance in triaging pediatric patients involved in a multiple casualty incident immediately posttraining and at a 3- to 4-month follow-up interval.

This research involved a traditional pretest, training, posttest, and follow-up test format. However, since the variable of interest was performance rather than cognition, the measures were the individual student's ability to triage 10 children with simulated injuries into 1 of 4 possible categories within a 5-minute time window. A convenience sample of participants was selected from 3 divergent geographic locations. Standardized training and performance evaluation measures were employed.

Significant performance improvements in pediatric triage were noted immediately following a 1-hour lecture, discussion, and case review. Changes in performance were maintained over a 3-month posttraining period. Prehospital personnel and school nurses benefited equally from pediatric triage training.

Structured training results in triage performance improvement among prehospital and nursing personnel. This improvement is maintained for a period of at least 3 months. Additional research pertaining to the length of time between necessary retraining and/or refresher is warranted. Additionally, the relationship between staged scenario performance and responses to actual multiple casualty incidents needs to be established.