How do I establish priority nursing diagnoses or collaborative problems?
Nurses use a variety of frameworks to determine priority nursing diagnoses or collaborative problems. One common framework is Maslows hierarchy of needs. Using this framework, nurses prioritize physiological needs the highest, followed by safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. Other common prioritization schemes include using the ABC system (airway, breathing, and circulation) to assign the highest priority to those problems that interfere with the patients airway, followed by problems that impact the patients breathing and then circulation. Nurses may also assign priorities based on nursing diagnoses or collaborative problems that are immediately life threatening versus those that are not. When a patients condition is physiologically stable, the nurse may assign priorities based on which problem is most significant to the patient.
