when caring for any critically ill patient should also
be applied. These include checking intravenous
infusions; checking patient equipment and alarm
settings; ensuring the correct attachment of
Figure 1 Patient assessment.
monitoring devices and appropriateness of alarm
settings.
Primary survey
The Primary survey (see Table 1) is concerned
with identifying life-threatening circumstances
that require immediate attention (Nettina, 2006).
The pneumonic A: Airway, B: Breathing, C: Circulation,
D: Disability and E: Exposure is utilised.
The assessment is essentially unchanged regard