Which nursing assessment takes priority?

[wannabmidwife]

:confused:I'm in fundamentals and I'm not sure how to prioritize the assessments. For example, if bp is high and pulse is high, which takes priority? Or if temp is high and bp is high, which takes priority? Are there guidelines for determining which assessment takes priority?

[birthrevolution]

Airway

Breathing

Circulation

In the case of elevated BP and elevated HR intervening in one would impact the other. I can't think of a time when I've been asked to choose between BP or HR as a priority with both of them being crappy (and I just studied a huge amount of Cardio for the NCLEX). Usually you look at them together. For example if pulse is high and BP is low, you would want to intervene (because it's a sign of hemorrhage).

As for temp v. BP it would depend on how high each of them were, but most likely you would intervene on BP first because circulation is a higher priority than body temperature.

[myty23]

I agree with the above poster. I have however come across a question on a test once where you had pulse of 52 and BP of 84/42 and in this case the BP was of more priority than the pulse, since it was so low and the pulse was only slightly bradycardic. So if you are having to choose between HR and BP, just go with the one that is worse....but yes, always remember your ABC's and you will usually be able to choose the correct answer.