Lessons · Nursing · prioritising by ABC
Prioritising by the ABC rule, as it is stated
When more than one patient needs you, the rule as given is airway first, then breathing, then circulation, and everything else after those three; among calls of the same kind, the one that is changing fastest goes first.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Three lights go on at once and you cannot be in three rooms. The rule is not a judgement about who matters; it is an order of operations for the next four minutes, and it is the same order any experienced nurse would give you.
How to think about it
Sort the calls by which part of ABC each one touches, using the words the problem gives. Airway before breathing, breathing before circulation, and anything outside the three after all of them. If two sit in the same band, the newer or faster-changing problem goes first, and a stable scheduled task goes last.
Worked example
Call 1: a patient choking on foodAirway. Nothing outranks it.
Call 2: a patient short of breath after walking to the bathroomBreathing. Second.
Call 3: a dressing with fresh bleeding through itCirculation. Third.
Call 4: a scheduled medication due in ten minutesNone of the three, and it has a window. Last.
Order: airway, breathing, circulation, then the scheduled taskThe rule, applied to four calls in one corridor.
Your turn
Write the first of the three letters, in full.
, then breathing, then circulation
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Going to the loudest call first. Volume is not a place in the order, and a patient who cannot make a sound because their airway is blocked is the one the rule was built for.