The TRIAGE Study: Maternity Triage parameters for best practice
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A mixed methods study exploring current practice and maternity professionals' and women's views and experiences in order to establish parameters of best practice for maternity triage: the TRIAGE study
IRAS ID
214936
Contact name
Alison Cooke
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Title: A mixed methods study exploring current practice and maternity professionals’ and women’s views and experiences in order to establish parameters of best practice for maternity triage.
Summary: Triage comes from the French verb ‘trier’ meaning ‘to sort’. Triage is evident in Accident and Emergency departments: patients are first seen by the triage nurse who assesses the patients. The patients are then prioritised so that the most urgent are seen first. Maternity triage processes have become a common part of maternity care provision in the UK. Triage is routinely the first point of contact for urgent maternity care. However, there is no standard process. We do not know what maternity triage processes are currently practised in the UK. Equally we are not aware of what the professionals working in triage think about their process, or what women’s views of triage are.
There is some evidence of various triage processes being practiced by maternity units, for example, a dedicated phone line staffed by clinical or clerical staff; midwives answering the phone on the delivery unit and making a decision based on the conversation whether to admit or not; a prioritising tool such as a traffic light system; a dedicated hospital department. However, there is no evidence on which of these is best practice: we do not know the best parameters for a triage process to ensure the safest and most effective care.
This study will explore what maternity triage processes are currently practised in the UK; the views and experiences of staff working in maternity triage processes and women’s experiences of being ‘triaged’ and the best parameters for a triage process to ensure safe and effective care. These questions will be answered using a mixed methods study comprising a national survey of maternity units and qualitative focus groups and interviews recruiting participants from three geographical settings. This work will inform a much larger study aiming to test the suggested best triage process which emerges from the data.REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NW/0423
Date of REC Opinion
20 Jun 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion