Course Description
In this course you will learn the correct approach to ATS triaging for New Zealand Urgent Care Clinics as outlined by the Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care and the Urgent Care Standard 2015.
Discover the purpose, philosophy, and essential features of a robust triage system. Dive deep into the Australasian Triage System (ATS) and its five levels of acuity to optimise your triage assessment and practice in an urgent care setting.
Using the Primary Survey approach to triage, with additional physiological and psychological parameters, you will come to understand the specific requirements for triage within urgent care for various populations including mental health, rural and remote, infants and children, and pregnant women.
This course includes 11 video modules with interactive Q&A, supporting downloadable documents, an eight hour in-person tutorial, and a final exam. It provides learning content intended to help you improve consistency of urgent care triage in New Zealand in order to achieve better patient outcomes.
Disclaimer: This course outlines the system for triage using the Australasian Triage System (ATS) urgent care within New Zealand. This course meets the requirements of The Standard 2015 set out by the Royal New Zealand College of Urgent Care (RNZCUC). The ATS, developed by Australian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM), includes suitable adaptations to suit the context of urgent care in New Zealand. This course is endorsed by the Urgent Care Nurses Network. Two years experience in urgent care or emergency nursing is required prior to completing this course.
Course Requirements
- • 11 online modules
- • 8 hours practical learning
- • 4 x 2 hour online workshops (please book Online Workshops A, B, C, and D)
- • 2.5 hour online examination
Workshops can be booked via the booking section on the right-hand side of the course page once enrolled.
The online modules and workshop(s) are a pre-requisite for the online examination. The examination will be made available for access once the workshops are complete.
Course Modules
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1. Urgent Care Triage Today
Learn the purpose of a triage system, and its governing origins, standards, and audit requirements. Understand key triage terms, essential features of a robust system, and the difference between urgency, severity and complexity of a patient’s illness or injury.1 hour
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2. Australasian Triage Scale
Learn about the purpose and philosophy underpinning the ATS, it’s five levels of acuity, time-to-treat criteria and performance-indicator category thresholds. Discover the recommended application of the ATS scales, influencing risk factors, and reliability testing using ‘footprints and other scales used around the world.1 hour
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3. Communication
In this module learn the importance of communication at triage and the many factors that influence the process of communication when assessing at triage. Discover strategies to enhance communication and manage challenging communication encounters at triage.1 hour
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4. Assessment Basics
Discover the basic triage techniques for assessing environmental hazards, general appearance, and physiological discriminators such as airway, breathing, circulation, and disability following the Primary Survey approach. Learn other timely conditions and risk factors to consider, detect, and assess at triage for better patient outcomes, and become familiar with the recommended Urgent Care triage model.1 hour
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5. Mental Health at Triage
Learn the specific approach to determining time-to-treatment for common mental health-related presentations across different life stages for youth, adult and elderly. Discover the ABC’s of mental health triage with helpful questions and strategies to improve assessment in your workplace. Identify with the recommended mental health tool and its descriptors provided within the ATS as your trusty quick guide at triage.1 hour
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6. Rural & Remote Triage
Learn the differences that exist in rural/remote triage practices, and the influencing factors and issues that arise in non-urban environments. Discover strategies to support the accurate use of the ATS and counterbalance common issues arising for many rural and remote triage practitioners. Disclaimer: This module discusses sensitive information around suicide.1 hour
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7. Pain Assessment at Triage
Learn the factors influencing pain perception and expression, pain measurement and assessment strategies, and pain scales used at triage. Discover influencing physiological considerations, how pain assessment data can be used to guide ATS acuity, and pain management techniques.1 hour
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8. Paediatric Triage
Learn the influencing factors, differing needs, and predictors of serious illness and injury in infants and children. Furthermore, discover the physiological approach as it applies to clinical urgency for a pediatric population, as well as the available assessment tools to aid decision-making and the application of the ATS at triage.1 hour
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9. Pregnancy Triage
Learn the physiological changes in pregnancy that may modify Triage decision-making and the common conditions that present at triage pre and post-20 week gestation, as well as during the postnatal period. Discover obstetric and non-obstetric complications that may adversely impact both the pregnant mother and the unborn child and relevant questions to assist Triage assessment.1 hour
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10. Medico-Legal
Learn the medico-legal Triage Nurse role and responsibilities including informed consent, duty of care, negligence, documentation, confidentiality, and the preservation of forensic evidence. Touch on re-triage, along with the recommended tools and local policies and guidelines to support the Triage role.1 hour
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11. Case Studies & Exam Preparation
Practice allocating an ATS category to a number of patient scenarios at triage presentations. Walkthrough an array of case studies and discuss in detail the reason behind the ATS Category allocated for each case study. This engaging module is the perfect preparation for your Triage exam.1 hour
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12. ATS Triage Workshops
Book and complete either 4x online workshops or 1x in-person workshop. The course facilitator will mark this module as completed once you have met the requirements.8 hours
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13. ATS Triage Exam
To complete this course you are required to sit the ATS Triage Exam. You will be eligible to sit the exam once all Modules and Workshops have been completed.2h 30m
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Course Completion Certificate
Once you have completed the course requirements, your printable completion certificate will be downloadable here.
