Last review date 03/02/2023

Why don't we have the PEWS (Paediatric Early Warning Signs) Score within Ardens?

Currently the PEWS tool is mainly used in the paediatric inpatient environment to help detect early, the rapidly deterioration of a child, in order to guide the paediatric nurses/team on their next steps of action. Unlike the NEWS2 score, it has not yet been validated for general use at the primary care/secondary care interface as tool for detecting or communicating the early detection of sepsis, and hence rapid ambulance response. In addition to this,  on recent closer inspection, it was found there are some differences in the interpretation of some vital signs between the NICE sepsis risk stratification tool which Ardens use, and PEWS; eg PEWS giving a score of zero for some pulse rate readings, whereas NICE interprets them as moderate-high risk.

For all of these reasons, until PEWS is recommended in national guidance for use in primary care, we will be following NICE guidelines for sepsis risk stratification in children.