Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

The topic of this Thesis is the National Early Warning Score (EWS), is a guide used by medical services to quickly determine the degree of illness of a patient. The first recorded EWS was developed by a team in James Paget University Hospital, Norfolk, United Kingdom, and presented at the May 1997 conference ofthe Intensive Care Society. 
It is based on the vital signs (respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, blood pressure, pulse/heart rate, AVPU response). The aim of this tool is to prevent a deterioration, or the onset of an irreversible condition of health, signaling to the nursing staff the need to implement, intensify or modify the treatments. 
The score obtained, using a value ranging from 0 to 3 per each vital parameter, is a useful factor for predicting the length of hospital stay and the mortality risk. Therefore, it is able to inform the medical staff about a danger event before it occurs, reducing admissions to intensive care and activating the Medical Emergency Team (MET) only if necessary. 
It is a standardized assessment tool capable of improving the teamwork of medical staff, reducing the evaluation mistakes that can happen. In addition to all hospital wards, this tool can be applied in many other sectors such as ER (Emergency room), to define a patient’s severity code; in the pediatric field with a similar assessment tool adjusted on the pediatric age. Furthermore, it is a system widely used in the United Kingdom and its effectiveness recognized by the scientific field. Therefore, the spread and implementation of this tool in Italy could significantly improve health care, reducing mortality and improve the cost / benefits wage of the Italian National Health System.