The five prioritization lenses
Four client situations dropped through five stacked lens plates in order, the first plate resolving the question and the remaining four faded to show they were never reached.
The five, in order
- Airway, breathing, circulation. Outranks everything else on the page.
- Maslow's hierarchy. Physiological need precedes safety, which precedes love and belonging, then esteem, then self-actualization.
- The nursing process. Assessment precedes intervention, unless the client is unstable.
- Acute over chronic, unexpected over expected.
- Safety and risk reduction, including the least restrictive and least invasive option that works.
Which lens the stem is asking for
- A stem listing several physiologically unstable clients is an ABC item. Rank the instabilities.
- A stem mixing a physical need with an emotional one is a Maslow item.
- A stem offering an assessment and an intervention as competing options is a nursing process item.
- A stem in which every option is safe and one client's condition has changed is an acute-over-chronic item.
When they disagree
Apply the lenses in order and stop at the first one that resolves the question. If a lower lens contradicts a higher one, the higher lens is correct and you have misread the stem. Go back and read it again rather than arbitrating between them.
Margin notego down the list, stop at the first one that answers.
Watch outSkipping straight to Maslow while an airway is in play is the highest-cost error in this entire section.
TakeawayFive lenses, applied in a fixed order, and the first lens that resolves the stem decides the answer. → BOOK 01 · P16 · → BOOK 01 · P29 · → BOOK 03 · P3