Triage sets the tone for the entire emergency visit. For nurses looking to up their triage game, Emergency Nursing 2025 offers several can’t-miss sessions focused on standardized training, efficient patient flow and accuracy.
Emergency Severity Index Training and Competency: Working Toward Effective Triage Skills | Sept. 19, 8:15-9 a.m.
When hospitals have varying triage protocols, continuity is lost. –So it’s critical that emergency nurses across the field adopt standardized usage of the Emergency Severity Index for the most efficient and accurate triage.
Ashley Lunkenheimer, DNP, CEN, NE-BC
In her presentation “Emergency Severity Index Training and Competency: Working Toward Effective Triage Skills,” Ashley
Lunkenheimer, DNP, CEN, NE-BC, the chief nurse executive in emergency medicine at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, will join her team members to discuss a push to create a nationwide formal framework for ESI training. “We developed pathways to provide that education to our nurses across the organization and also to provide regular feedback to them from their peers,” she said.
The session will be interactive, using a software that creates polls designed to engage attendees and reveal their ESI proficiency. By scanning a QR code at the start of the session, they’ll be guided through checkpoints enabling them to share feedback.
“People who choose to attend will take away a breadth of knowledge,” Lunkenheimer said.
The “First Look” Nurse: Reducing Door-to-Triage Times | Sept. 18, 9:45-10:15 a.m.
Quick and efficient triage should be a priority, but it doesn’t always happen. At Inova Loudon Hospital in Leesburg, Virginia, adding a first-look nurse alongside the triage nurse during peak hours reduced door-to-triage times by 88 percent over two years, according to Lindsay Schoem, BSN, RN, TCRN, a trauma nurse specialist.
Lindsay Schoem, BSN, RN, TCRN
In their presentation “The “First Look” Nurse: Reducing Door-to-Triage Times,” Schoem and her colleagues will discuss how they revamped their ED process by adding a first-look nurse who works in tandem with the triage nurse. All first-look nurses are experienced clinicians with extra training in triage.
At the registration window, the first-look nurse takes heart rate and pulse oximeters readings, checking for symptoms that may mean patients need to be taken back immediately.
“We’re able to pick who we think is the sickest and get them back for the care that they need,” said Schoem, noting people sometimes mask important symptoms.
According to Schoem, Inova Loudon patients report greater satisfaction since first-look nurses began working with triage nurses. “Patients don’t see themselves as waiting as long because they’ve had that initial contact with someone,” she said. “It’s interpreted as caring.”
Shaping the Future of Triage: Emergency Nursing Triage Education Program | Sept. 18, 9:45-10:15 a.m.
Nurses interested in a deep dive into a formal triage verification program should check out “Shaping the Future of Triage: Emergency Nursing Triage Education Program,” led by ENA Nursing Content Specialist Danielle McCallum, MSN, RN, CEN.
Danielle McCallum, MSN, RN, CEN
According to McCallum, the developer of the ENTEP program, a lack of accuracy in triage can directly and negatively affect patient care. This includes treatment delays, extended hospital stays and worsened outcomes, such as an increased risk of complications and death.
The interactive presentation showcases the ENTEP layout, including evidence-based educational content, and highlights the benefits of participating in the day-and-a-half-long program.
“This program addresses a significant knowledge gap when it comes to triage,” McCallum said, adding that anyone interested in improving their triage knowledge and skills or — for nurse leaders — the skills of their department will find the session valuable.