Triage Management During Covid-19 in Emergency Department: A Phenomenology Approach Among Nurses in Medan

Introduction: Triage is an important link in treating critical patients, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, triage is not only to select and sort patients from emergency status, but to avoid a surge in patients from the limited hospital capacity and medical personnel. The experience of emergency room nurses is needed to formulate a nursing service strategy. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of nurses in carrying out management of triage (client priority classification system based on the severity of the client's condition or the emergency that requires immediate action) in the Emergency Room (ER) during COVID-19 pandemic in Medan. Methods: The type of research used in this studied was qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. Sampling used purposive sampling technique with the number of participants as many as 10 people. Data collection was done through in- depth interviews. The process of data analysis in this studied used Colaizzi's approach of content analysis. Results: The results of the study found four main themes that describe the experience of nurses in carrying out triage management during the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes that emerged as a result of the research were: 1) Triage management during Covid pandemic, 2) Individual perceptions of infection/contagion Triage, 3) The burden of the triage nurses' during Covid pandemic, and 4) Nurses’ gratitude. Conclusion: The experience of nurses in conducting triage management during the COVID-19 pandemic was focused on initial screening, namely the assessment of acute respiratory infections (ARI), contact history and a history of indications for COVID-19. Then secondary triage was sorting patients based on emergency conditions. The use of personal protective equipment still did not meet the standards, the workload of nurses was high and there was gratitude by them for being at the forefront of handling COVID-19