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Use of the Modified Early Warning Score by Medical-Surgical Nurses to Initiate the Rapid Response Team: Impact on
Iman Miles1, Maighdlin Anderson, Dianxu Ren
1WellStar Cobb Hospital, Austell, Georgia (Dr Miles); University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Drs Anderson, Ren, and Fennimore); and WellStar Center for Nursing Excellence, Austell, Georgia (Ms Coker).
Background:
Cardiac arrests are often preceded by several hours of physiological deterioration that may go undetected.
Local Problem:
Cardiac arrests frequently occurred on medical-surgical units without prior rapid response team intervention.
Methods:
A pre/postintervention design was used to evaluate a protocol to guide the use of the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) by medical-surgical nurses to escalate the care of deteriorating adult patients.
Interventions:
Following staff education, the MEWS protocol was implemented across 8 medical-surgical units.
Results:
There was a significant increase in patients experiencing a rapid response prior to a cardiac arrest after implementing the MEWS protocol ( P < .0001).
Conclusion:
Implementing a consistent review of MEWS values allows medical-surgical nurses to initiate assistance from a rapid response team that may prevent an inpatient cardiac arrest.
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