- Frye’s ABCDE cascade provides a framework for prioritizing care by identifying the most important treatment concerns.
- A = Airway. This category includes everything that affects a patent airway, including a foreign object, fluid from an upper respiratory infection, and edema from trauma or an allergic reaction.
- B = Breathing. This category includes everything that affects the breathing pattern, including hyperventilation or hypoventilation and abnormal breathing patterns, such as Korsakoff’s, Biot’s, or Cheyne-Stokes respiration.
- C = Circulation. This category includes everything that affects the circulation, including fluid and electrolyte disturbances and disease processes that affect cardiac output.
- D = Disease processes. If the patient has no problem with the airway, breathing, or circulation, then the nurse should evaluate the disease processes, giving priority to the disease process that poses the greatest immediate risk. For example, if a patient has terminal cancer and hypoglycemia, hypoglycemia is a more immediate concern.
- E = Everything else. This category includes such issues as writing an incident report and completing the patient chart. When evaluating needs, this category is never the highest priority.
- A = Airway. This category includes everything that affects a patent airway, including a foreign object, fluid from an upper respiratory infection, and edema from trauma or an allergic reaction.
- B = Breathing. This category includes everything that affects the breathing pattern, including hyperventilation or hypoventilation and abnormal breathing patterns, such as Korsakoff’s, Biot’s, or Cheyne-Stokes respiration.
- C = Circulation. This category includes everything that affects the circulation, including fluid and electrolyte disturbances and disease processes that affect cardiac output.
- D = Disease processes. If the patient has no problem with the airway, breathing, or circulation, then the nurse should evaluate the disease processes, giving priority to the disease process that poses the greatest immediate risk. For example, if a patient has terminal cancer and hypoglycemia, hypoglycemia is a more immediate concern.
- E = Everything else. This category includes such issues as writing an incident report and completing the patient chart. When evaluating needs, this category is never the highest priority.
