How do you prioritize patients using the ABCs framework on the NCLEX?

The ABCs framework prioritizes patient care by airway, breathing, and circulation in that order. An obstructed airway is always the highest priority because without a patent airway, breathing and circulation are irrelevant. A patient in respiratory distress takes priority over a patient with chest pain, and chest pain takes priority over a wound infection. On the NCLEX, when two or more answer choices seem correct, ask which patient has the most immediate threat to airway, then breathing, then circulation. ABCs override Maslow's hierarchy when an acute physiological crisis is present.