NCLEX Cheat Sheet: Priorities, Delegation, Isolation and Client Needs

Prioritization, the nursing process, delegation, isolation precautions and the 2026 Client Needs percentages in one place, each with the source it comes from.

ExamReady Editorial Team

Published October 12, 2026 · 14 min read

Table of contents

This NCLEX cheat sheet covers frameworks, not lab values or drug lists. Prioritize with the ABCs and Maslow, acute over chronic, usually actual over potential. Follow the nursing process; delegate by the five rights, never nursing judgment. Add contact, droplet or airborne precautions to standard precautions. Weight your review by the 2026 Client Needs percentages; RN and PN differ.

Each section below names its source. Lab values and medications have their own guides, the NCLEX lab values guide and NCLEX pharmacology essentials. Our NCLEX tips show how to use a cheat sheet after a missed question.

NCLEX Cheat Sheet at a Glance

Framework	The rule in one line	Where the 2026 test plans put it
Prioritization	The ABCs and Maslow's physiological and safety needs; acute before chronic; usually actual before potential	Establishing Priorities, under Management of Care (RN) or Coordinated Care (PN)
Nursing process	RN: assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, evaluation. PN: data collection, planning, implementation, evaluation	An integrated process across all Client Needs categories
Delegation	Check the five rights; never delegate nursing judgment	Assignment, Delegation and Supervision (RN); Assignments/Delegation (PN)
Isolation precautions	Standard precautions for every patient; add contact, droplet or airborne precautions by route	Safety and Infection Prevention and Control
Client Needs	Four categories, eight content areas; several ranges differ between RN and PN	The structure of both test plans

Prioritization: ABCs, Maslow, Actual vs Potential, Acute vs Chronic

Open RN's Nursing Fundamentals defines prioritization as the skillful process of deciding which actions to complete first for client safety and optimal client outcomes, and names Maslow's hierarchy, the ABCs and acute, uncompensated conditions among the concepts used for it. Open RN's Nursing Management and Professional Concepts adds acute versus chronic, actual versus potential and unexpected versus expected findings as data cues used together with those frameworks.

Framework	What it puts first
ABCs	A threat to airway, breathing or circulation: in Open RN's words, if any of them fails, "very little of what else we do matters."
Maslow's hierarchy	Physiological needs such as oxygen, food and water first, then safety, then love and belonging, then esteem and self-actualization.
Actual vs potential	A problem happening now generally comes before one that may develop; a risk problem sometimes comes first, depending on the client's vulnerability and risk factors.
Acute vs chronic	An acute problem, with a sudden and severe onset, comes before a chronic one, which has a slow onset.
Unexpected vs expected	A finding not likely in the normal course of the client's condition often needs immediate action.

Open RN adds two cautions: the ABCs are reflected in the physiological base of Maslow's pyramid, and whether the airway comes first "depends on the situation and the associated safety considerations."

On the test plans, this is Establishing Priorities. The RN plan lists prioritizing client care "based on acuity" and using pathophysiology to set priorities for interventions with multiple clients; the PN plan lists organizing and prioritizing care "based on client needs."

How to use it on a question: the test plans describe prioritizing hypotheses by urgency, likelihood, risk, difficulty and time constraints. Turn the frameworks into questions about the client in the item: is airway, breathing or circulation at risk, is a physiological or safety need unmet, is the problem acute, unexpected, or actual rather than a risk? The cues decide which question settles it; our NCLEX test-taking strategies guide explains why the frameworks are lenses, not formulas.

The Nursing Process: How the RN and PN Exams Word It

Both 2026 test plans list the nursing process among the integrated processes that run through every Client Needs category, but they word it differently:

Source	Steps of the nursing process
2026 NCLEX-RN Test Plan	Assessment, analysis, planning, implementation, evaluation
2026 NCLEX-PN Test Plan	Data collection, planning, implementation, evaluation
Open RN Nursing Fundamentals (ANA Standards)	Assessment, diagnosis, outcomes identification, planning, implementation, evaluation

The RN plan calls the nursing process "a scientific, clinical reasoning approach to client care." The PN plan names it the clinical problem-solving process and starts with data collection rather than assessment. The step after assessment is analysis in the RN plan and diagnosis in Open RN's textbook, which follows the ANA Standards and adds outcomes identification before planning.

Both plans also list the six clinical judgment steps that the six items of a case study address: recognize cues, analyze cues, prioritize hypotheses, generate solutions, take action and evaluate outcomes. Our NCLEX clinical judgment guide walks through each one.

How to use it on a question: decide which step the item is testing. An item about what to check or gather is assessment (data collection on the PN exam); an item about whether the expected outcomes were met is evaluation.

Delegation and Assignment: The Five Rights

The National Guidelines for Nursing Delegation, adopted jointly by NCSBN and the American Nurses Association (ANA) and effective April 29, 2019, apply where a state's nurse practice act is silent: when APRNs delegate to RNs, LPN/VNs or assistive personnel (AP), when RNs delegate to LPN/VNs and AP, and when LPN/VNs delegate to AP where their state or jurisdiction allows it. They separate two things:

Assignment is routine care, activities and procedures within the authorized scope of practice of the RN or LPN/VN, or part of the routine functions of AP.
Delegation lets a delegatee perform a specific nursing activity, skill or procedure that is beyond their traditional role and not routinely performed.

Right	What the guidelines require
Right task	The activity is in the delegatee's job description or the setting's written policies and procedures.
Right circumstance	The patient's health condition must be stable. If it changes, the delegatee tells the nurse, who reassesses whether the delegation is still appropriate.
Right person	The delegatee has the skills and knowledge to perform the activity.
Right directions and communication	Specific instructions, including the data to collect, how to collect it and when to report the results. The delegatee asks questions, accepts the task and makes no decisions or changes without first consulting the nurse.
Right supervision and evaluation	The nurse monitors the activity, follows up when it is done, evaluates patient outcomes and stays ready to intervene.

What the nurse may not delegate:

Nursing judgment, clinical reasoning or critical decision making, or any activity that involves them.
A responsibility outside the nurse's own scope of practice. When the delegatee is a licensed nurse, the task must also fit the delegatee's authorized scope under the nurse practice act.

The delegatee cannot delegate the task to anyone else; only a licensed nurse can delegate. The delegating nurse keeps overall accountability for the patient, and the delegatee is responsible for the delegated activity.

Two notes on scope. The guidelines do not cover a handoff, the transfer of responsibility for a patient's care between licensed health care providers, such as RN to RN or LPN/VN to LPN/VN. And states and jurisdictions have their own delegation laws and rules: each licensed nurse is responsible for knowing what is permitted where they practice.

Both test plans ask you to "utilize the rights of delegation" and list the same five rights: under Assignment, Delegation and Supervision on the RN plan, and under Assignments/Delegation on the PN plan, where the LPN/VN assigns care to assistive personnel or other LPN/VNs.

How to use it on a question: check all five rights, and the two limits the guidelines state outright: the client's condition must be stable, and an activity that requires clinical reasoning, nursing judgment or critical decision making cannot be delegated. If delegation is not appropriate, the guidelines say the nurse performs the activity.

Isolation Precautions: Standard, Contact, Droplet, Airborne

CDC's Guideline for Isolation Precautions (2007, last updated September 2024) sets two tiers. Standard Precautions apply to the care of all patients in all healthcare settings, whether or not an infection is suspected or confirmed. Transmission-Based Precautions, in three categories (contact, droplet and airborne), are for patients known or suspected to be infected or colonized with certain agents, and they are always used in addition to Standard Precautions.

Precaution	When CDC uses it	PPE and placement
Standard	All patient care	Hand hygiene; gloves, gown, mask, eye protection or face shield, depending on the anticipated exposure; safe injection practices; respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
Contact	Known or suspected infections with an increased risk of contact transmission, directly or through the patient's environment, such as VRE, C. difficile, noroviruses and RSV	Gown and gloves for any contact with the patient or the environment, put on at room entry; a single room if available; dedicated or disinfected equipment
Droplet	Pathogens in respiratory droplets generated when the patient coughs, sneezes or talks, such as influenza virus, B. pertussis, adenovirus, rhinovirus, N. meningitidis and group A streptococcus (first 24 hours of antimicrobial therapy)	A mask, put on at room entry; a single room if possible; the patient wears a mask outside the room
Airborne	Pathogens transmitted by the airborne route, which remain infectious over long distances in the air, such as tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox and disseminated herpes zoster (CDC's Appendix A adds Contact Precautions for the last two)	An airborne infection isolation room (AIIR); a fit-tested NIOSH-approved N95 or higher-level respirator for staff; the patient wears a surgical mask outside the room, if possible

On the 2026 test plans, precautions sit under Safety and Infection Prevention and Control, which the 2023 NCLEX-RN Test Plan called Safety and Infection Control. The RN plan asks you to understand the modes of organism transmission (airborne, droplet, contact); the PN plan asks you to identify them.

How to use it on a question: name the route first, then match the room and the PPE. Contact, droplet and airborne precautions are always added to standard precautions, never used instead of them, and CDC uses them singly or in combination.

Client Needs: 2026 NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN Percentages

Both 2026 test plans, effective April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2029, organize the exam into four Client Needs categories. Two of them are divided into subcategories, giving eight content areas. The RN and PN plans name two areas differently and weight several differently, so keep the two tables apart.

NCLEX-RN Client Needs, 2026

Client Needs category	Content area	Share of items
Safe and Effective Care Environment	Management of Care	15–21%
Safe and Effective Care Environment	Safety and Infection Prevention and Control	10–16%
Health Promotion and Maintenance	Health Promotion and Maintenance	6–12%
Psychosocial Integrity	Psychosocial Integrity	6–12%
Physiological Integrity	Basic Care and Comfort	6–12%
Physiological Integrity	Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies	13–19%
Physiological Integrity	Reduction of Risk Potential	9–15%
Physiological Integrity	Physiological Adaptation	11–17%

NCLEX-PN Client Needs, 2026

Client Needs category	Content area	Share of items
Safe and Effective Care Environment	Coordinated Care	18–24%
Safe and Effective Care Environment	Safety and Infection Prevention and Control	10–16%
Health Promotion and Maintenance	Health Promotion and Maintenance	6–12%
Psychosocial Integrity	Psychosocial Integrity	9–15%
Physiological Integrity	Basic Care and Comfort	7–13%
Physiological Integrity	Pharmacological Therapies	10–16%
Physiological Integrity	Reduction of Risk Potential	9–15%
Physiological Integrity	Physiological Adaptation	7–13%

Two areas have different names: Management of Care on the RN plan is Coordinated Care on the PN plan, and Pharmacological and Parenteral Therapies is Pharmacological Therapies. Their ranges differ too, as do the ranges for Psychosocial Integrity, Basic Care and Comfort and Physiological Adaptation.

Clinical judgment is measured in addition to these areas, by 18 case study items (three item sets) and approximately 10% stand-alone items. Because the exam varies in length, an individual exam's content distribution may differ by up to ±3% in each category. How the NCLEX works explains the adaptive format, and the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN pages cover each exam.

How to use it in your review: weight your study time by these ranges, and check that any cheat sheet you use has the 2026 names.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should an NCLEX cheat sheet include?

Start from the NCSBN test plan for your exam, which summarizes the content and scope of the exam: NCSBN encourages candidates to review the test plans before their appointment. The sections above cover the frameworks; lab values and medications have their own guides.

Can you bring a cheat sheet to the NCLEX?

No. The NCSBN Examination Candidate Rules list study notes, meaning any educational or test preparation materials, among the things you may not access during the exam. The 2026 Candidate Bulletin also lists bringing NCLEX study aids, such as textbooks, notebooks or classroom notes, to the testing center, or accessing them after the exam starts, including breaks, as irregular behavior. That can lead to dismissal from the test center without a refund of the exam fee and to a withheld or canceled result, and your nursing regulatory body may take other disciplinary action, such as denying a license. Review your sheet before test day; what to expect on test day covers the rest.

What can an RN not delegate?

Under the NCSBN and ANA guidelines, nursing judgment, clinical reasoning and critical decision making, or any activity that involves them. The task must also be within the RN's own scope of practice, the client's condition must be stable, and the delegatee cannot delegate the task to anyone else. Delegation laws and rules differ by state and jurisdiction, so the rules where you practice also apply.

What is the difference between droplet and airborne precautions?

Droplet precautions are for pathogens spread through close contact with respiratory secretions. These do not remain infectious over long distances, so staff wear a mask (CDC says a respirator is not necessary) and no special air handling is required. Airborne precautions are for pathogens that remain infectious over long distances in the air, so CDC calls for an airborne infection isolation room and a fit-tested N95 or higher-level respirator.

Do the ABCs always come first?

Not always. Open RN's Nursing Fundamentals asks whether the airway is the most important and answers that "it depends on the situation and the associated safety considerations": in its example, a passenger who is not breathing is first moved out of a burning car, then CPR starts. The ABCs still mark the most critical needs for preserving life. Our test-taking strategies guide lists "airway is always the answer" among the unreliable shortcuts and asks instead which finding is the most immediate threat in the case.

Do the NCLEX-RN and NCLEX-PN cover the same content areas?

Not exactly. They share the four Client Needs categories and the six clinical judgment steps, but two content areas have different names, several ranges differ, and the nursing process is worded differently: assessment and analysis on the RN plan, data collection on the PN plan.

Does an older NCLEX cheat sheet still apply?

Check its date. NCSBN updates the test plans every three years. The current plans took effect on April 1, 2026, and run through March 31, 2029, and older materials may use 2023 names such as Safety and Infection Control.

From Cheat Sheet to Practice

A cheat sheet tells you which framework to reach for; practice shows whether you can apply it to a scenario. Explore ExamReady NCLEX preparation when you want a structured place to practice applying these frameworks.

Official resources

Educational note: This cheat sheet is for NCLEX preparation and general education. It summarizes official frameworks and guidelines and does not provide patient-specific clinical advice. In practice, follow current CDC guidance, the delegation rules of your state or jurisdiction and your facility's policies.