Nursing Process: Priority Setting

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Nursing Process Priority Setting

• George Ann Daniels MS, RN

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Setting Priorities

• Priorities establish the order in which problems
  will be approached

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Criteria to Address When Setting Priorities

• Clients health values and beliefs
• Clients priorities
• Resources available
• Urgency of health problem
• Medical treatment plan

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Guidelines for setting priorities

• Life-threatening concerns
• Safety concerns
• Health threatening
• Normal developmental needs
• Patient priorities
• Nurses priorities
• Overall picture of each health concern
• Availability of time resources
• Theorist
• Maslows

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• Rank
• Highest priority
• Medium priority
• Low priority
• Actual NDX usually takes priority over high risk
• Physiological problems usually take priority over
  developmental problems
• Priorities should not be fixed, but must change
  as the clients health problems change

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• May have to deal with psychological problem
  before you can deal with a medium to low priority
  physiological problem
• Functional health patterns according to Gordons
  are listed in a series, NOT listed in order of
  decreasing priority