Effect of JumpSTART Training on Immediate and Short-term Pediatric Triage Performance

OBJECTIVE: 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. METHODS: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSIONS: 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.