Which assessment is performed to discover life-threatening injuries?

The initial assessment is designed to quickly identify life-threatening injuries and establish priorities for treatment. This assessment focuses on the ABCs—Airway, Breathing, and Circulation—ensuring that any immediate threats to life are addressed first. The goal of this assessment is to determine if there are any critical conditions that require urgent medical attention. It is a rapid process that serves as a foundation for further evaluations and interventions.

While other assessments, such as a full body scan or a secondary assessment, may provide a more comprehensive understanding of a patient's overall condition, they are not performed with the same urgency as the initial assessment. The full body scan involves a more detailed examination of the body for injuries, and the secondary assessment typically occurs after the initial assessment, focusing on identifying additional problems that may not be immediately life-threatening. A physical examination is a broader term that refers to any structured assessment of the body but does not necessarily emphasize identifying life-threatening conditions in the same urgent manner as the initial assessment.