Teaching Prioritization: “Who, What, & Why?”
As a student nurse or a new graduate nurse there is an overwhelming amount of information to learn. Each department within a hospital may have their own guidelines and ways to deliver care making it more stressful to learn, however certain skills such as recognition and prioritization can be applied and put to good use in any department. The continual growth of these characteristics will prove far superior than others when it comes to managing multiple, complex clients who all need care. Throughout the article, Jessee, the author, emphasizes the importance of teaching proper prioritization skills to not only practicing nurses, but also new nurses. The concept of prioritization within the healthcare
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Prioritization is an essential skill that nurses must have so that they are able to provide care for all of their patients. Jessee believes that prioritization should be taught earlier on in nursing school and that it should be reinforced throughout one’s career. Reinforcement should be placed with an emphasis on the understanding of the "who, what, and why" of prioritization. The “Who, What, & Why?” is based upon a risk-based model that builds on specific structural knowledge. The model includes the “essential nursing prioritization frameworks (ABCs, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, time-sensitive tasks) and concepts or disorders students are asked to consider during the exercise” (Quote). The "who" relates to the patient or task that requires prioritization, such as seeing a patient first who is having a difficult time breathing versus a stable patient. The "what" corresponds to the task or intervention that needs to be prioritized. This may include giving medication to a patient who is in severe pain before performing an assessment on another patient. Jessee suggests that all nurses must prioritize the tasks at hand in order to maintain patient’s safety as well as their health. Lastly, the "why" refers to the