The practical nurse (PN) is preparing for shift change. Which task has the highest priority and should be completed first?

The correct answer is choice B. Verify completion of all new prescriptions. This task is crucial to ensure patient safety and proper medication administration. Choice A rationale: Clean up and organize the nurses’ workstation: While maintaining an organized workstation is important for efficiency and reducing stress, it is not the highest priority task. Patient safety and care tasks take precedence over organizational tasks. Choice B rationale: Verify completion of all new prescriptions: This is the highest priority because verifying new prescriptions ensures that patients receive the correct medications as prescribed by their healthcare providers. This step is critical to prevent medication errors, which can have serious or even fatal consequences. Ensuring the accuracy of medication orders directly impacts patient safety and care quality. Choice C rationale: Calculate and record intake and output totals: Monitoring and recording intake and output is important for assessing a patient’s fluid balance and overall health status. However, this task can be delegated to another team member and does not take precedence over verifying medication orders, which is more time-sensitive and directly related to patient safety. Choice D rationale: Write a narrative shift summary for each client: Documenting a shift summary is essential for continuity of care and communication between healthcare providers. However, this task can be completed after ensuring that all critical patient care tasks, such as verifying new prescriptions, are addressed first.