Association between Manchester Triage System discriminators and nursing diagnoses.

Objective: To analyze the association between Manchester Triage System flowchart discriminators and nursing diagnoses in adult patients classified as clinical priority I (emergency) and II (very urgent).

Method: Cross-sectional study conducted in an emergency department in southern Brazil between April and August 2014. The sample included 219 patients. Data were collected from online patient medical records and data analysis was performed using Fisher's exact test or the chi-square test.

Results: 16 discriminators and 14 nursing diagnoses were identified. Associations were found between seven discriminators and five problem-focused nursing diagnoses, including the discriminator Cardiac pain and the diagnosis Acute pain. Three discriminators were associated with four risk nursing diagnoses, among these Acute neurological deficit with the diagnosis Risk of ineffective cerebral tissue perfusion.

Conclusion: Significant associations were found between Manchester Triage System discriminators and the nursing diagnoses most frequently established in the emergency department.