Triage

Watch how the exam switches contexts: an everyday ED “who do you see first?” item rewards the sickest, most unstable client (ABCs first — airway, then breathing, then circulation), but once the stem names a mass-casualty or disaster scene, you sort to do the most good for the most people and deliberately pass over the unsalvageable. The classic START tags: red/immediate = an airway, breathing, or circulation threat fixable with a quick maneuver; yellow/delayed = serious but stable; green/minor = the “walking wounded”; black/expectant = injuries not survivable with available resources. Common traps: over-triaging a dramatic but stable injury, or starting CPR on an apneic disaster client—in START, someone not breathing after a single airway-repositioning attempt is tagged black, because resources spent on one expectant client cost several salvageable reds.

Don’t confuse triage with acuity: acuity drives who staffs a client and what assignment they get, while triage decides who is treated first. A high-acuity patient isn’t automatically your top triage priority once everyone is already in care.