author(s)
Tamilarasi B, Kanimozhi M, Jessy Rani M, Monisha A and Beaulah Ponsundari A

abstract
Emergency colour codes are colour-coded indicators used in healthcare facilities to alert all staff members of potential issues arising in a facility. These codes include unique prescribing criteria for how staff members should respond to a particular situation, ranging from an active shooter incident to cardiac arrest. Emergency codes help to facilitate the health personnel understand how to effectively manage emergencies. Depending on the type of facility, emergency codes may be created by internal administrative officials or oversight agencies. The study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching program regarding emergency colour codes on knowledge and practice among nurses in selected hospital at Chennai. The study was conducted by adopting pre-experimental one group pretest posttest design. A total of 30 nurses who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique. The pretest was done to assess the knowledge with the self-structured knowledge questionnaire and the practice with observation checklist. Following the pretest, a structured teaching programme on emergency color code was implemented that included a power-point presentation for 30 minutes along with a mock drill for 30 minutes daily for 7 days, which was developed by the investigator. A post-test was conducted for the nurses to assess the knowledge and level of practice using the same tool which was given during the pretest on the last day of intervention. The analysis of this study results revealed that the mean score of knowledge 16.27 was increased to 24.63 and the calculated student paired t’ test value was 13.37 which was highly significant at p<0.001 level. Also, the mean score of practice 8.17 was increased to 16.57 and the calculated student paired t’ test value was 20.36 which was highly significant at p<0.001 level. Thus the study concluded that the structured teaching program significantly enhances the knowledge and practice regarding emergency colour codes among nurses.