Priorities are established to help the nurse anticipate and sequence nursing interventions when a client has multiple problems or alterations. Priorities are determined by the client’s:
A. Physician
B. Non-Emergent, non-life-threatening needs
C. Future well-being.
D. Urgency of problems
Correct Answer: D. Urgency of problems
Triage of patients involves looking for signs of serious illness or injury. These emergency signs are connected to the Airway – Breathing – Circulation/Consciousness – Dehydration and are easily remembered as ABCD. If the client does not have any emergency signs, the health worker proceeds to assess the client for priority conditions. This should not take more than a few seconds. Some of these signs will have been noticed during the ABCD triage and others need to be rechecked.
Option A: All clinical staff involved in the care of the sick should be prepared to carry out a rapid assessment to identify the few clients who are severely ill and require emergency treatment.
Option B: Triage is the process of rapidly examining sick children when they first arrive in order to place them in one of the following categories: those with EMERGENCY SIGNS who require immediate emergency treatment; those with PRIORITY SIGNS who should be given priority in the queue so they can be rapidly assessed and treated without delay; and those who have no emergency or priority signs and are NON-URGENT cases. These clients can wait their turn in the queue for assessment and treatment. The majority of sick clients will be non-urgent and will not require emergency treatment.
Option C: Ideally, all clients should be checked on their arrival by a person who is trained to assess how ill they are. This person decides whether the client will be seen immediately and receive life-saving treatment, or will be seen soon, or can safely wait for his or her turn to be examined.