The triage Nurse's ability in electrocardiogram interpretation in real clinical practice.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

The study aimed to assess the triage nurse's skill in the recognition of abnormal electrocardiogram during actual clinical practice and to identify nurse- and patient-related factors associated with errors in electrocardiogram interpretation.

BACKGROUND

The nurse's ability to interpret the electrocardiogram has only been evaluated in simulation settings and has reported conflicting results.

DESIGN

A prospective single-centre observational study.

METHODS

During the evaluation of a patient with a cardiovascular symptom, the triage nurses were asked to define whether the 12-lead electrocardiogram performed during the triage evaluation was pathological or non-pathological for the presenting symptom. Patient characteristics and some nurse-related variables were recorded. Inter-rater agreement between the physician and nurse in the electrocardiogram interpretation was considered the primary outcome, while the association of a major acute cardiovascular event related to patient access in the Emergency Department was the secondary outcome. We have followed the STROBE checklist for the preparation of this manuscript.

RESULTS

Twenty nurses agreed to participate to the study and collect data. Of the 644 patients enrolled, 21.6% (139/644) reported a pathological electrocardiogram according to the ED Physician. The concordance between nurse and physician was modest with Cohen's Kappa of 0.666. An error in the electrocardiogram interpretation was present in 11% of the patients. Nurses who performed an electrocardiogram course within 1 year and studied electrocardiogram interpretation autonomously presented a lower error rate, while older patients and patients with more previous cardiovascular disease were found to be more associated with an error in electrocardiogram interpretation.

CONCLUSIONS

The study demonstrates that triage nurses have a fair ability to interpret the electrocardiogram.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Specific educational programmes for electrocardiogram interpretation could improve the skill of electrocardiogram interpretation by the nurse and enable this instrument to become an indispensable tool in triage assessment.