Introduction: Triage is a process that prevents Children from being hospitalized unnecessarily by quickly diagnosing and identifying the client's condition. Due to physiological and anatomical differences in children, nursing students must complete at least one course on pediatric triage. This study aims to evaluate the effect of teaching children triage in two ways by using lecture and outcome-based method.
Methods:  In this quasi-experimental study with a two-group pretest-posttest design, 57 nursing students were selected by random allocation sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups. Triage scenarios were taught and presented in two ways by using lecture and outcome-based method. One month later, the post-test was taken. Data were collected using a questionnaire assessing the knowledge and Decision Making of ESI and were analysed using SPSS.
Results: The results indicated that the average scores of clinical decision-making in two groups of lecture and outcome-based education before the study were 2.94 and 3.02 and after the study were 4.37 and 4.83 respectively. The average knowledge scores before the study in two groups of lecture and outcome-based education were 6.66 and 6.30 and after the study were 7.40 and 6.83, respectively. There is no statistically significant difference between the average clinical decision-making scores and knowledge scores of students in two groups of lecture and outcome-based education.
Conclusion: Based on findings, there is no statistically significant difference between the adjusted average scores of knowledges and clinical decision-making of students in two groups of lecture and outcome-based education. Therefore, in charge of nursing undergraduate course planning, using active methods such as outcome-based education to teach children's triage topics is recommended.