Table 1. Patients’ and nurses’ characteristics.
| Variable | Encounters in which nurses wore clear face masks (n=732) | Encounters in which nurses wore surgical face masks (n=2,337) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient age, mean ± SD, years | 9.6±4.6 | 10.1±4.6 | 0.275 |
| Patient sex, n (%) | 0.815 | ||
| Male | 458 (62.6) | 1,451 (62.1) | |
| Female | 274 (37.4) | 886 (37.9) | |
| Diagnosis, n (%) | 0.643 | ||
| Trauma | 293 (40.0) | 958 (41.0) | |
| Medical | 439 (60.0) | 1,379 (59.0) | |
| 24-hour time of arrival, n (%) | <0.05 | ||
| 07:01–15:00 | 292 (40.0) | 700 (29.9) | |
| 15:01–23:00 | 343 (46.8) | 1,226 (52.5) | |
| 23:01–07:00 | 97 (13.2) | 411 (17.6) | |
| Triage acuity level*, n (%) | <0.05 | ||
| 2 | 53 (7.2) | 309 (13.4) | |
| 3 | 381 (52.0) | 1,247 (53.3) | |
| 4 | 276 (37.8) | 707 (30.2) | |
| 5 | 22 (3.0) | 74 (3.2) | |
| Nurse experience, n (%) | <0.05 | ||
| <5 years | 517 (70.6) | 1,719 (73.6) | |
| 5–10 years | 167 (22.8) | 384 (16.4) | |
| >10 years | 48 (6.6) | 234 (10.0) | |
| Pain score, n (%) | 0.796 | ||
| 0 | 411 (56.1) | 1,435 (61.4) | |
| 1–3 | 83 (11.4) | 221 (9.4) | |
| 4–6 | 135 (18.4) | 394 (16.9) | |
| 7–10 | 103 (14.1) | 287 (12.3) | |
| Nurses’ face mask use, n (%) | |||
| Nurse 1 | 87 (11.9) | 328 (14.0) | 0.069 |
| Nurse 2 | 118 (16.2) | 392 (16.8) | 0.339 |
| Nurse 3 | 90 (13.1) | 316 (13.5) | 0.196 |
| Nurse 4 | 53 (7.3) | 201 (8.6) | 0.122 |
| Nurse 5 | 54 (7.4) | 145 (6.2) | 0.130 |
| Nurse 6 | 42 (5.8) | 168 (7.2) | 0.087 |
| Nurse 7 | 95 (13.0) | 280 (12.0) | 0.236 |
| Nurse 8 | 27 (3.8) | 76 (3.2) | 0.284 |
| Nurse 9 | 39 (5.3) | 107 (4.6) | 0.203 |
| Nurse 10 | 29 (4.0) | 113 (4.8) | 0.163 |
| Nurse 11 | 29 (4.0) | 66 (2.8) | 0.060 |
| Nurse 12 | 21 (2.7) | 60 (2.6) | 0.328 |
| Nurse 13 | 21 (2.7) | 46 (2.0) | 0.072 |
| Nurse 14 | 14 (1.9) | 21 (0.9) | 0.012 |
| Nurse 15 | 7 (0.9) | 18 (0.8) | 0.312 |
| Nurses’ satisfaction of wearing a face mask, median [IQR] | Clear face mask: 4 [2–4] | Surgical face mask: 4 [1–5] | 0.952 |
*, based on the PaedCTAS. Level 1—patient requires immediate evaluation and care, level 2—patient requires evaluation and care within 15 min, level 3—patient requires evaluation and care within 30 min, level 4—patient requires evaluation and care within 60 min, and level 5—patient requires evaluation and care within 120 min. Patients who receive triage level 1 were excluded from the study. n, number of patients; SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range; PaedCTAS, Paediatric Canadian Triage Acuity Scale.