What would your answer be to this question?

[SouthernNurse27, BSN]

Okay I had this question on one of my finals. I was really sort of torn one this one.

What is the nurses priority?

A. Assessment

B. pain relief

C. Turn, cough, deep breathe

D. Some off the wall answer I don't remember

I am only a 1st semester student. I ASSUMED answer C b/c of ABC's. Can you tell me what you think & you're rationale?

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

Okay I had this question on one of my finals. I was really sort of torn one this one.

What is the nurses priority?

A. Assessment

B. pain relief

C. Turn, cough, deep breathe

D. Some off the wall answer I don't remember

I am only a 1st semester student. I ASSUMED answer C b/c of ABC's. Can you tell me what you think & you're rationale?

I DON'T miss these types of questions. Been out of school 4 1/2 years.

Hmmm...I think I would say assessment. You would need to assess the patient to know what they needed next. How would I know if they had pain or needed to deep breath/cough? I would need to assess the patient first.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

I'd go with assessment. How can you offer a pain relief intervention without an assessment? Same with cough & deep breathe as that is an intervention but one must assess first?

ABC but also ADPIE. Now if it was raise HOB instead of cough & deep breathe....maybe.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

Does your school not teach the nursing process? Assessment is always first. Pain may be the patient's priority but is not yours

[Stephalump]

Assessment. Can't do anything else without it!

[kaydensmom01]

Assessment

[ER(notso)n00b, ASN, RN]

Assessment is the first step in the nursing process. B and C are interventions, and you can't plan interventions without assessing first.

[RLtinker, LPN]

This sounds like a nursing fundamental question. Particularly ADPIE or assessment diagnose plan intervention evaluate. So yes assessment is priority. Outside of fundamentals, assement is not alway the answer.

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

Yep yep, assessment would be first, you need a baseline to work with or everything else you do will be kind of pointless.

[4boysmama]

I can always hear my first semester instructor's voice in my head: ASSESS, ASSESS, ASSESS!!

You can't offer pain relief until you know where the pain is, how bad it is, etc. You can't teach cough and deep breath until you know for sure the pain doesn't have limitations that would preclude turning. A nurse must always assess the patient before any interventions. Always!

[NYCRN16]

If you pick apart the answer choices, you will figure out why the other choices were wrong, even if you didn't know that assessment is the answer. Do you know why we do turn, cough, deep breathing with the patient? Look up the rationale and see why this isn't a priority. You have to know the rationale behind the answer choices in order to get the question right, that is how NCLEX questions are styled and why memorization alone won't work.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Okay I had this question on one of my finals. I was really sort of torn one this one.

What is the nurses priority?

A. Assessment

B. pain relief

C. Turn, cough, deep breathe

D. Some off the wall answer I don't remember

I am only a 1st semester student. I ASSUMED answer C b/c of ABC's. Can you tell me what you think & you're rationale?

The answer is assessment. How would you conclude that the patient needs pain relief or needs turning if you don't ASSESS first?