Emergency nursing intervention should be provided to patients under fatal status with much quickness and accuracy. To improve the quality of emergency medical service, triage nurse systems, being implemented in advanced hospitals which successfully provide effective emergency services, are considered in this thesis. A triage nurse is defined as a nurse who first and immediately meets the patient at the very entrance of emergency department, and performs proper intervention according to the extent of injury. Triage functions include interviewing patients, physical evaluation, classifying patients, assigning nurses/doctors, and beds, performing preliminarily required tests and remedies, re-evaluation of waiting patients, emotional supports, arranging future medical services, and education. In Korea, triage nurse systems have not yet been introduced, however, some prleminary types of triage systems are being practised. The purpose of this thesis was to review the triage functions implemented in Korean emergency department and then to suggest a model of triage nurse system for Korean emergency departments. For field study, 10 emergency departments in Seoul, which have more than 13 nurses, are selected, and a nurse who have more than 1 year experience in emergency department was interviewed from each workshift, i.e. day, evening, and night. Data collection taken 17 days from Apr. 8 to Apr. 30, 1996. In the field study, we reviewed the triage functions performed in Korean emergency departments. 40.9% of interviewed nurses show that the triage functions are performed by general nurses, 18.42% and 10.15% indicate that the functions were performed by charge nurses and assigned nurses, respectively. Thus, triage nurse systems where pre-assigned nurses consistently perform triage functions were not yet introduced in Korean emergency departments. However, 96.7% of the nurses answered that triage systems are needed in their emergency departments and 82.77% showed that triage functions would be performed at the entrance of emergency department. A triage nurse systems will unload stresses which both patients and supporters cope with, provide secure and comfortable medical environments, and reduce the waiting time. Finally, it may be improve the patients' and supporters' satisfaction. Therefore, this study provides basic data to enhance emergency medical services and leads to a future study to implement and extend specialized nursing systems in emergency departments.

One of the important activities nursing is the alleviating of discomfort including pain as providing comfort to patient. Postoperativediscom has been underestimated because it is only a part of postoperative physiological process and disappear in time. The study was designed to investigate the effect of relaxation technique on postoperative discomfort of patients with lumbosacral back pain. A total of 40 patients were selected as a subject from August 12th to October 10th 1995 who had been hospitalized at NS and OS nursing units in K medical center. Of them twenty were in the experimental group and the remaining twenty were in the control group in convenience sampling. The tools for study were Relaxation technique, designed to use postoperative setting adequately by Park, and Postoperative Discomfort Scale. The data were analyzed by use of t-test an x2 test. The study was concluded as follows : The main hypothesis, that "the experimental group who used relaxation technique will express a lesser score of postoperative discomfort than the control group who did not use relaxation technique" is divided into seven sub-hypotheses. Hypothesis 1, that "the experimental group will express less postoperative pain than the control group"was supported(t=-7.52, p=0.000). Hypothesis 2, that "the experimental group will express less postoperative feeling of unpleasantness than the control group"was supported(t=-7.04, p=0.000). Hypothesis 3, that "the experimental group will express less postoperative immobilization discomfort than the control group"was supported(t=-6.66, p=0.000). Hypothesis 4, that "the experimental group will show fewer nonverbal expressions of postoperative distress than the control group"was supported(t=-3.75, p=0.01). Hypothesis 5, that "the experimental group will use analgesic medication less frequently than the control group" was supported(t=-4.15, p=0.000). Hypothesis 6, that "the experimental group will have less change in vital sings between the pre and postoperative periods than control group"was supported only for respiratory rate(t=-4.06, p=0.000). Hypothesis 7. that "the experimental group will express less postoperative voiding difficulty than the control group"was not supported(t=0.06, p=0.951). As a result, this study showed that relaxation technique has the effect to postoperative discomfort of the patients with lumbosacral back pain, so the researcher thought it is enable for nurses to help patients undergoing postoperative discomfort.