A nurse is assisting with field triage following a motor-vehicle crash involving a bus with multiple victims. The nurse assesses a child who has an open fracture of the femur. Which action should the nurse take?

Rationale: A. In a mass-casualty or field triage situation, time is critical, and the priority is to rapidly identify life-threatening injuries and categorize patients for treatment, rather than performing a detailed head-to-toe assessment on every victim. Complete assessments are performed later once patients are stabilized or brought to definitive care. Spending time on a full assessment in the field could delay care for more critical victims. B. While notifying the receiving hospital is an important step in disaster response, it is not the immediate priority during initial triage. The nurse’s first responsibility in the field is to assess and categorize patients to determine treatment priority based on the severity of injuries. Communication with the hospital is secondary and occurs after rapid triage. C. In emergency and disaster situations, consent is implied for urgent or life-threatening injuries. Waiting to locate parents before providing care could delay treatment and put the child at unnecessary risk. Parental consent can be obtained later if needed once the child is stabilized. D. The child has an open femur fracture, which is a serious injury that requires prompt care but is not immediately life-threatening if airway, breathing, and circulation are stable. In field triage, this type of injury is categorized as yellow (urgent/delayed). Yellow-tagged patients need care after immediate life-threatening cases (red tag) are stabilized, but before minor injuries (green tag). The tag communicates the priority