When performing a primary survey, what is your first priority?

When performing a primary survey, what is your first priority?

• A. Assess blood pressure.
• B. Obtain patient history.
• C. Check blood glucose.
• D. Scene safety and identifying life threats to the airway, breathing, and circulation.

Answer: (D)

In the primary survey, the immediate focus is on survival by making the scene safe and quickly identifying life threats to the airway, breathing, and circulation. Scene safety protects you and the patient so you can continue care without adding danger, and spotting threats to the airway, breathing, or circulation lets you intervene right away to prevent hypoxia or shock. If the airway is compromised, or the patient isn’t breathing adequately, or there is severe bleeding or poor perfusion, those issues must be addressed before anything else. Checking blood pressure, taking a patient history, or measuring blood glucose don’t shift the patient from an immediately life-threatening state, whereas clearing an obstructed airway, supporting ventilation, and controlling bleeding do. Once those critical problems are stabilized, you move on to the secondary survey to gather history and obtain more detailed vital signs.

In the primary survey, the immediate focus is on survival by making the scene safe and quickly identifying life threats to the airway, breathing, and circulation. Scene safety protects you and the patient so you can continue care without adding danger, and spotting threats to the airway, breathing, or circulation lets you intervene right away to prevent hypoxia or shock. If the airway is compromised, or the patient isn’t breathing adequately, or there is severe bleeding or poor perfusion, those issues must be addressed before anything else. Checking blood pressure, taking a patient history, or measuring blood glucose don’t shift the patient from an immediately life-threatening state, whereas clearing an obstructed airway, supporting ventilation, and controlling bleeding do. Once those critical problems are stabilized, you move on to the secondary survey to gather history and obtain more detailed vital signs.