✨ Featured Lessons · Lesson 1 of 8 · 60 sec
The 3-Second Rule for 'Which Client First?'
🚦 Four clients. One nurse. The exam gives you ten seconds. Here is how to use three of them.
💡 Key idea
Airway, breathing, circulation. Then unexpected over expected. Then body over feelings.
🧠 Why it matters
Ask three questions in order. ONE: who has an airway, breathing or circulation problem? TWO: whose problem is new, changing or unexpected rather than old and stable? THREE: whose need is physiological or safety-related rather than emotional? The first client to clear a question is your answer. Expected findings, chronic stable conditions and psychosocial needs wait, no matter how loud they are.
🏥 In the real world
🏥 A client with stridor after thyroid surgery, a client crying about a diagnosis, a client with chronic pain at 6/10, and a client whose IV pump is beeping. Stridor is airway. Done in three seconds. The exam wrote the other three to tempt your empathy and your to-do list.
📌 Takeaways
- ABCs first, always, except compressions first in cardiac arrest
- New and changing beats old and stable
- Feelings matter, but physiology and safety come first on the exam
✅ Test yourself
Which client should the nurse see first?
- A client with chronic back pain rated 7/10 asking for a heating pad
- A client who is tearful about a new diagnosis
- A client requesting discharge paperwork
- A client with new confusion and a respiratory rate of 28
Answer: D · A client with new confusion and a respiratory rate of 28
New confusion with tachypnea is an unexpected, changing finding that may reflect hypoxia or sepsis; the others are stable or psychosocial.
Two clients: one with expected incisional pain on post-op day 1, one with sudden calf pain and swelling on post-op day 3. Who is first?
- Whichever room is closer
- The client with expected incisional pain
- Both at the same time
- The client with calf pain and swelling
Answer: D · The client with calf pain and swelling
Unilateral calf pain and swelling days after surgery is a possible DVT: unexpected and dangerous. Incisional pain on day 1 is expected.
NCLEX-style questions, XP and streaks in the app. No sign-up needed.
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