Tips on Answering Prioritization Questions on The HESI Exit Exam
by Prioritization questions will most probably be on your HESI exit exa. They test you on this for safet reasons to see if you can think critically enough to provide patients with safe and efficient care. It involves thinking along certain lines in order to answer the questions. Here are a few tips on answering prioritization questions on the HESI exit exam for nursing students.
To answer prioritization questions on the HESI, think about the following
TIme frames: If the patient just came to the floor from surgery, you must see that patient first. YOU need to check if they are responsive, look at their incisions to make sure they are intact and also make sure they are in no respiratory distress. Also clients who have just been admitted to the floor need to be seen as soon as possible first if possible depending on the options the question gives you because you dont know anything about the patient. They may be at risk for aspiration and you need to see them and assess them to know that.
Stability /acuity: If the patient for one reason or the other has become unstable, you have to see that patient first because there is a possibility that their condition might escalate, so its important to monitor their condition. It may be something like an increase in temperature that is was above that clients baseline. ANother thing to look at is the symptoms the clients are presenting with. Anything that may be potentially life threatning deserves the initial attention of the registered nurse. SO you need to understand the signs and syptoms and ask yourself is this an impending case of peritonitis, appendicitis, cardiac tamponade or pulmonary edema?
ABCS of nursing: Use airway, breathing, circulation and safety to answer questions that seem confusing, not straight forward or where everything seems not to be life threatening. The patient with affected airways should be seen first. I was recently in the ER and almost all the patients who had trouble breathing were seen first and given treatments.
Maslow: use maslow to determine what patient to see first. Physiology should come first , then safety and then the other psychosocial elements will come into play.
The discharge patient can be seen last, since they have been stabilized.
If there is a possibility that a patient will harm themselves or others then that patient should be seen first to protect the other persons involved and the atients themselves. E.g, a mother who has newborn calls nd says voices are telling her to drown herself and her baby. You have to see her first.
These are a few tips i have on prioritization in nursing that can help you on your HESI exit exam. I hope you find this article useful. Good luck on the HESI.
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