Overview  Create a 15-minute oral presentation (3–4 pages) that examines the moral and ethical issues related to triaging patients in an emergency room. By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria: Show Less Competency 1: Explain the effect of health care policies, legislation, and legal issues on health care delivery and patient outcomes.        Explain the health care policies that can affect emergency care. Recommend evidence-based decision-making strategies nurses can use during triage. Competency 3: Apply professional nursing ethical standards and principles to the decision-making process.        Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when following hospital policies and protocols. Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions. Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with expectations of nursing professionals.        Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Correctly format citations and references using APA style. Context:  Working in an emergency room gives rise to ethical dilemmas. Due to time restraints and the patient's cognitive impairment and lack of medical history, complications can and do occur. The nurse has very little time to get detailed patient information. He or she must make a quick assessment and take action based on hospital protocol. The organized chaos of the emergency room presents unique ethical challenge, which is why nurses are required to have knowledge of ethical concepts and principles. To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. How does a triage nurse decide which patient gets seen first? How does health disparity affect the triage nurse's decision making? What ethical and moral issues does the triage nurse take into account when making a decision? What are triage-level designations? Assessment Instructions:  Your supervisor has asked you to do a 15-minute oral presentation at a staff meeting about a recent issue that occurred at another hospital in town. Following an industrial accident, two patients arrived at the emergency room of that hospital at the same time, presenting with very similar inhalation injuries. The hospital received a great deal of negative press due to how the patients were triaged in the ER. Your supervisor would like you to use the specifics of this case to review triage procedures and best practices at your facility. Here are the details: One is a 32-year-old firefighter, Frank Jeffers, who is presenting with respiratory difficulties that he obtained while evacuating victims of an industrial accident. He is a married homeowner and father of two young boys. He has lived in ...

1. Overview
Create a 15-minute oral presentation (3–4 pages) that examines
the moral and ethical issues related to triaging patients in an
emergency room.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will
demonstrate your proficiency in the following course
competencies and assessment criteria:
Show Less
Competency 1: Explain the effect of health care policies,
legislation, and legal issues on health care delivery and patient
outcomes.
Explain the health care policies that can affect emergency care.
Recommend evidence-based decision-making strategies nurses
can use during triage.
Competency 3: Apply professional nursing ethical standards and
principles to the decision-making process.
Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when
following hospital policies and protocols.

2. Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with
expectations of nursing professionals.
Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of
grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Correctly format citations and references using APA style.
Context:
Working in an emergency room gives rise to ethical dilemmas.
Due to time restraints and the patient's cognitive impairment
and lack of medical history, complications can and do occur.
The nurse has very little time to get detailed patient
information. He or she must make a quick assessment and take
action based on hospital protocol. The organized chaos of the
emergency room presents unique ethical challenge, which is
why nurses are required to have knowledge of ethical concepts
and principles.
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider
the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a
work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your
professional community.

3. How does a triage nurse decide which patient gets seen first?
How does health disparity affect the triage nurse's decision
making?
What ethical and moral issues does the triage nurse take into
account when making a decision?
What are triage-level designations?
Assessment Instructions:
Your supervisor has asked you to do a 15-minute oral
presentation at a staff meeting about a recent issue that occurred
at another hospital in town. Following an industrial accident,
two patients arrived at the emergency room of that hospital at
the same time, presenting with very similar inhalation injuries.
The hospital received a great deal of negative press due to how
the patients were triaged in the ER. Your supervisor would like
you to use the specifics of this case to review triage procedures
and best practices at your facility. Here are the details:
One is a 32-year-old firefighter, Frank Jeffers, who is
presenting with respiratory difficulties that he obtained while
evacuating victims of an industrial accident. He is a married
homeowner and father of two young boys. He has lived in the
community all his life. He has full and comprehensive health
insurance through his employer.
The other is Brent Damascus, a 58-year-old man. Brent is
presenting with respiratory difficulties with the same intensity
as Mr. Jeffers above. He is well known at the hospital

4. emergency room, as he is a frequent visitor with various
complaints, including asthma, headaches, and tremors. He is
homeless, unemployed, and uninsured. He stays many nights at
the YMCA and eats lunch at the soup kitchen. He has lived in
the community for over 10 years and has been arrested several
times for petty theft.
Preparation
Search the Capella library or the Internet for scholarly and
professional peer-reviewed articles on best practices in triage
nursing. You will need at least three articles to use as support
for your work on this assessment.
Directions
Create a 15-minute presentation (3–4 pages) that examines the
moral and ethical issues that occurred when triaging these two
patients and the best practices for managing this in the future.
Divide your draft into a number of talking points that you can
summarize neatly. Keep in mind that an oral presentation
requires slightly different language than an essay. The aim is to
communicate your message so keep sentences simple and focus
on the key points you want to deliver. Address the follow ing in
your presentation:
Explain the health care policies and protocols that are in place
that direct triage care in an emergency situation.
Explain how health care disparities impact treatment decisions.
Identify the health care policies that are in place that direct care
for uninsured individuals. Is there a difference in how these

5. individuals are triaged?
Describe the moral and ethical challenges nurses can face when
following hospital policies and protocols. Is there a conflict
when a severely injured person is also uninsured?
Recommend evidence-based strategies that should be applied
for managing the care of uninsured and indigent population.
Additional Requirements
Your presentation should meet the following requirements:
Written communication
: Written communication should be free of errors that detract
from the overall message.
References
: Include a reference section with a minimum of three
references; a majority of these should be peer-reviewed sources.
All resources should have been published within the last 5
years.
APA format
: Resources and citations should be formatted according to
current APA style and formatting.
Length
: 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding title page and
reference page. Use Microsoft Word to complete the
assessment.
Font and font size
: Times New Roman, 12-point.