Evidence-based paediatric nursing: paediatric early warning systems.

In hospital cardiac arrest are rare events in paediatrics. Most children receive appropriate care without experiencing undetected severe clinical deterioration during hospital admission. Outcomes of paediatric cardiac arrests are however generally poor, with high mortality rates and neurological damage at survival. A review of child mortality in the UK showed that a high proportion of unexpected deaths were preventable ( Pearsons 2008 ). Several studies of patient records of children who suffered cardiac arrests showed the presence of clear signs of clinical deterioration up to 24 hours before (Tume 2006). Appropriate recognition of clinical deterioration could have led to timely intervention to stabilise the patient. Missed deterioration may be due to lack of staff situational awareness, communication failure among professionals or between staff and families and other human factors ( Brady 2014 ).