Final answer:
As the triage officer, your immediate responsibility is to assess the patients and prioritize their treatment based on the severity of their injuries. The most common triage system used is the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) system. Priority (red and yellow tag) and critical (red tag) patients should be treated first.
Step-by-step explanation:
As the triage officer, your immediate responsibility is to assess the patients and prioritize their treatment based on the severity of their injuries. This means performing a triage assessment on all patients to determine their level of urgency and assigning them a tag or priority category.
The most commonly used triage system is the Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (START) system, which categorizes patients into four priority levels: immediate (red tag), delayed (yellow tag), minimal (green tag), and expectant (black tag). As the triage officer, you should focus on treating priority (red and yellow tag) and critical (red tag) patients first, as they require urgent medical attention.
Once patients have been assessed and tagged, they should be treated accordingly, following the guidelines set by the triage system in place. Evacuation of critical patients may be necessary, but it should be done in coordination with other emergency personnel and based on the resources available.