ABCDE Approach

Question 1

What does ABCDE stand for?

Answer 1

Airway, breathing, circulation, disability, exposure.

Question 2

What does airway stand for?

Answer 2

Assess airway patency: looking for signs of obstruction or difficulty breathing.

Question 3

How do we assess airway patency?

Answer 3

Is the person breathing easily?

Visible obstructions e.g choking?

Listening for normal breath sounds or wheezing and choking sounds.

Airflow at the nose and mouth.

Question 4

What does breathing stand for?

Answer 4

Checking the patients respiratory rate.

Evaluate their breathing e.g tachypnea or bradypnea.

Checking the patients oxygen saturation.

Question 5

What does circulation stand for?

Answer 5

Measure pulse rate and rhythm

Blood pressure

Urine output (low output means blood circulation is poor. Also signals dehydration or fluid buildup)

Question 6

What does disability stand for?

Answer 6

Assess level of consciousness through speech and pain.

Pain assessment.

Question 7

What does exposure stand for?

Answer 7

Measure body temperature,

Skin integrity: looking for wounds, dressings or drains, pressure sores, infections, or chronic conditions like diabetes.

Mobility

Bowel movements (blood in stool e.g cancer, white or pale stools e.g liver disease, black e.g problems in the digestive tract, constipation e.g Irritable bowel syndrome that affects the large intestine, diarrhea e.g an infection, inflammatory bowel disease)