Short answer: Mnemonics such as SBAR, ABCDE, APGAR, SIGECAPS and CURB-65 are widely taught and useful as retrieval cues. They help recall the items but do not replace understanding. Learn what each letter stands for, when the tool applies, and where local guidance differs from the mnemonic.
What a mnemonic is for
A mnemonic gives you a hook for a list. It is a retrieval cue: once you recall the letters, the items follow. It does not tell you when to use the list, how to weigh the items or what to do with the answer. In an exam, the question is usually about that second part.
The sets below are long established and widely taught. Still, guidelines change and countries differ, so use them as a skeleton and check details against your own course material and current guidance.
Assessment and communication
These are the ones nearly every candidate meets.
- SBAR: Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation. A structured way to hand over or escalate. See SBAR handover explained.
- ABCDE: Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure. A systematic approach to the acutely unwell patient, taught in many resuscitation courses.
- SOAP: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan. A common format for clinical notes.
- ADPIE: Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation. The nursing process steps taught in many nursing curricula.
Emergency and safety
These show up in questions on safety and emergency care.
- RACE for fire response: Rescue, Alarm, Contain, Extinguish. Some courses use “Remove” for the first step or “Confine” and “Evacuate” for later steps, so follow the wording of your facility.
- PASS for using a fire extinguisher: Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep.
- BE-FAST for stroke signs: Balance, Eyes, Face, Arm, Speech, Time. FAST is the shorter version many public campaigns use.
- SLUDGE for features of cholinergic excess: Salivation, Lacrimation, Urination, Defecation, Gastrointestinal upset, Emesis. DUMBELS is a close alternative.
Clinical scoring and criteria
Some mnemonics encode a scoring tool.
- APGAR: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration, scored at one and five minutes after birth. The name honours Virginia Apgar, who described the score in 1953.
- CURB-65 for pneumonia severity: Confusion, Urea, Respiratory rate, Blood pressure, age 65 or more. Check the thresholds in your own reference, because they are specific numbers.
- SIGECAPS for features of depression: Sleep, Interest, Guilt, Energy, Concentration, Appetite, Psychomotor change, Suicidal ideation.
- MUDPILES for causes of a raised anion gap metabolic acidosis. Several versions exist and newer ones replace some items, so learn the one in your course.
Cautions
Three cautions keep you out of trouble. First, some old mnemonics are out of date. MONA for acute coronary syndrome, for instance, no longer reflects current practice, so do not use it as a treatment plan. Second, a mnemonic can hide thresholds: it reminds you that blood pressure is part of CURB-65 but not the cut-off. Third, wording varies, so a mnemonic from a UK course may differ from one in a US text. When an exam question uses different wording, go back to the underlying principle.
Turn them into cards, not a long list
For each mnemonic you want to keep, write two or three cards: one that asks what the mnemonic stands for, one that asks when to use it, and one that asks for a specific item you tend to forget. A single card with the whole list on the back is slow and hides weak spots. The card-writing guide explains why.
Using a mnemonic inside a question: a worked example
Imagine a question describing a patient found unresponsive on the ward and asking for the first action. A candidate who has learned ABCDE as a list might simply pick “check airway”. A candidate who understands ABCDE will first ask whether it is safe to approach and whether the patient is responding, then go to airway. The mnemonic gets you to the right place in the sequence, and the stem tells you which step the patient has reached.
Another example: a stem describes a newborn at one minute with a heart rate under 100, a weak cry, some flexion of the limbs, a pink body with blue extremities and slow, irregular breathing. You do not need to recall the whole APGAR list in a panic, but the mnemonic lets you score each element in order and add them up. Then you can ask what the score implies for the next step, which is what the question is really about.
Making your own mnemonic
Sometimes the list you must learn has no standard mnemonic. A short personal one can work well. Take the first letters of the items and make a word or a silly sentence. The sillier, the better. Check that the order you use matches the order you need, or that you do not need an order.
Keep your mnemonics few. Each one needs reviewing, and a dozen is manageable but forty is not. Record each in your notes with its expansion and a one-line note on what it is for, then review them with spaced repetition. If you ever find that you remember the mnemonic but not what it is for, drop it or rewrite it.
When wording differs by country or guideline
Candidates who trained in different countries often learned slightly different versions of the same mnemonic. For example, the first step of the fire response may be “remove” in one course and “rescue” in another. The exam question will normally give you the information needed to choose a sensible answer without relying on a specific version. If it uses a term you do not recognise, think through what a safe person would do first, then look for the option that matches.
When your own training differs from the exam source, write both versions on the card and mark the one your exam uses. It takes thirty seconds and prevents a surprise.
How often to review them
A mnemonic that is reviewed once will fade. Put each into your card deck, review it at spaced gaps like any card and, once a week, say the whole set aloud in order. Aim to be able to give each expansion, say when it applies and give one example, in under ten seconds.
A short exercise to test your mnemonics
Take a blank sheet and write the mnemonics you think you know, with their expansions. Mark the ones you hesitated on. Then pick three scenarios, such as a patient who has collapsed, a call to a doctor and a newborn in the delivery room, and name the mnemonic you would reach for in each and what it tells you to do. If you can do that quickly, you are using mnemonics as tools. If you can only recite them, go back to examples and make them practical.
Do this exercise again a week later with the same sheet. The ones you hesitate on twice are the ones to put on cards.
Where to check a mnemonic
When you are unsure of the correct expansion or version, check a current textbook, the guideline from a recognised body or the policy of your own organisation, not a social media post. Mnemonics spread fast online and mistakes spread with them. If two sources disagree, write the difference on your card and choose the version used in your exam material.
Combine with a palace for long lists
Where a list has more than about eight items and a mnemonic does not fit, try a memory palace. A short mnemonic for the headline and a palace for the details gives you two ways in.
Whatever you use, test yourself with practice questions, because a list in your head only helps if you can use it under exam conditions.
More examples from the Meddex decks
The Meddex flashcards include mnemonic decks, with each card showing the hook, what it stands for, when to use it and where it can mislead. A few examples, written in our own words:
- VEAL CHOP links a heart-rate pattern on the CTG to its usual cause: Variable with Cord compression, Early with Head compression, Accelerations are OK, Late with Placental insufficiency. It leaves out baseline rate and variability, so read the whole trace.
- Fluid, Pump, Pipes, Plug names the four basic types of shock: hypovolaemic, cardiogenic, distributive and obstructive. Real patients are often mixed.
- Weird, Wild, Worried groups the personality disorders into clusters A, B and C. Use the clinical names with patients and in notes, not the nicknames.
- Mnemonics are memory aids and can be wrong or out of date. Check any you learn against your course material and local guidance.
Related guide
For the eight mnemonics nurses meet most, with worked cards, see DHA exam nursing mnemonics to memorise.
Frequently asked questions
This article is general educational guidance, not official advice. Exam rules, fees and timelines are set by the Dubai Health Authority and the test provider and can change, so always confirm the latest details on their official channels.
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