NCLEX-RN — Prioritization, Delegation & Safety flashcards
10 of 62 cards free to study here · 10 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
Who to see first and what to delegate, SBAR and safe handoffs, transmission-based precautions and PPE, falls, restraints, fire safety, medication rights and error prevention, consent and advance directives, ethics and law, and the NCSBN clinical judgment model.
Learn deck · part of NCLEX-RN · written against: NCSBN 2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan, in effect from 1 April 2026 (Next Generation NCLEX; client-needs categories and percentages unchanged from 2023, fact-checked 2026-10-11). Updated 2026-10-10.
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What is the first filter the nurse applies to any 'who do you see first' question?ABCs: airway, then breathing, then circulation. A client with a threatened airway outranks one with a breathing problem, who outranks one with a circulation problem; only when all three are stable do you move on to pain, safety, and psychosocial needs.Prioritization
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What can an unlicensed assistive person (UAP) be delegated, and what can they never do?Routine, predictable tasks on stable clients, as the state Nurse Practice Act and facility policy allow: vital signs, hygiene, feeding, ambulation, intake and output, turning, and simple specimen collection. Never assessment, planning, teaching, evaluation, or anything requiring nursing judgment, such as a first ambulation after surgery or a first feeding after a stroke.Delegation
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What are standard precautions, and when do they apply?The baseline for every client, every time: hand hygiene, gloves for contact with blood or body fluids, mask and eye protection when splashes are possible, safe sharps handling, and respiratory hygiene. They assume any client could be infectious.Infection Control
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What are the priority fall-prevention measures for a hospitalized client at high risk?Bed in the lowest position with the brakes locked, call light and personal items within reach, non-skid footwear, adequate lighting, and scheduled rounding to offer toileting. Side rails are not a substitute, and raising all four rails to keep a client in bed counts as a restraint.Falls & Restraints
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What does RACE stand for in a fire?Fire & Environmental Safety
- Rescue anyone in immediate danger,
- Alarm (pull the station and call the code),
- Confine the fire by closing doors and windows and shutting off oxygen as directed,
- Extinguish if it is small, or Evacuate.
Rescue always comes first. -
What are the rights of medication administration the nurse checks every time?The core six: right client, drug, dose, route, time, and documentation, with right reason, right response, and the client's right to refuse often added. Two identifiers (name and date of birth, never the room number) confirm the client.Medication Safety
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Whose responsibility is it to obtain informed consent, and what is the nurse's role?The provider performing the procedure must explain its purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives. The nurse witnesses the signature, confirms the client is competent, unsedated, and acting voluntarily, and calls the provider back if the client still has questions or does not understand.Consent & Advance Directives
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What do autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice each mean?Ethics & Legal
- Autonomy: the client's right to decide;
- beneficence: acting to benefit the client;
- nonmaleficence: doing no harm;
- justice: distributing care and resources fairly.
Many ethics questions set autonomy against beneficence.
Example: honoring a competent client's refusal of surgery respects autonomy even when the team believes surgery would help. -
What are the six steps of the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model?Recognize cues, analyze cues, prioritize hypotheses, generate solutions, take action, and evaluate outcomes. It builds on the nursing process without replacing it, and each Next Generation NCLEX case study has six items, one for each step.Clinical Judgment Model
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What does SBAR stand for, and when does the nurse use it?Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation — a structured way to report a concern to a provider or hand off care, so the key facts and the request come across quickly. Have the chart, vital signs, and recent labs at hand before calling.Communication & Handoff
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Checked against Open RN Nursing Management and Professional Concepts and Open RN Nursing Fundamentals (Chippewa Valley Technical College, CC BY 4.0); reference only, no text copied.
- Isolation categories cross-checked against the CDC 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions (public domain); delegation principles against the NCSBN and ANA National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation (2019); the clinical judgment steps against the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model; reference only.
- Client identification checked against The Joint Commission's National Performance Goals (which replaced its National Patient Safety Goals for hospitals and critical access hospitals on 1 January 2026) and abbreviations against its official Do Not Use list; post-exposure prophylaxis timing against CDC guidance (public domain); social media against the NCSBN guide to social media use; reference only, no text copied.
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