Investigators will enroll a convenience sample of consenting patients who present to the emergency department with a chief complaint related to respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath, cough, difficulty breathing, hypoxemia, or any other respiratory related complaint.~Following consent and in a blinded fashion, the nurse & emergency physician will be asked to evaluate the patient's work of breathing into three subjective categories: mild, moderate, or severe. The two evaluators will not be aware of the others evaluation of the patient. Evaluators will also be asked to predict the patients likely need for intervention & disposition.~Subsequently, investigators will perform a chart review to determine the patient's clinical interventions, outcomes, and dispositions, and evaluate the assessment of the patients work of breathing.
The proposed research study will be a prospective observational study designed to validate the Canadian Triage Assessment Scale (CTAS) in regard to work of breathing in patients in the emergency department. The investigators will assess inter-rater agreement between nurses & emergency physicians for assessment of work of breathing.