The Deteriorating Patient

Guidance & pathways

Acute illness in adults in hospital: recognising and responding to deterioration - NICE guidelines [CG50]
Acutely ill patients in hospital - NICE Pathway
Care of deteriorating patients - SIGN 139

Library resources

THE CLINICAL SEARCH ENGINE

Search DynamedPlus for the latest evidence based summaries (log in with your NHS OpenAthens account)

Now available online 24/7, finding procedures couldn't be easier! Using your NHS OpenAthens account you can log on at: www.rmmonline.co.uk

Other resources

The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2 is a common system for use across the NHS to lead progress in the assessment of and response to acute illness. This is the latest version of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS), first produced in 2012 and updated in December 2017. NEWS2 has now received formal endorsement from NHS England and NHS Improvement to become the early warning system for identifying acutely ill patients - including those with sepsis - in hospitals in England.
Acute care toolkit 6 : The medical patient at risk: recognition and care of the seriously ill or deteriorating medical patient contains advice and examples of effective responses to the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2 trigger system, including advice on resource and staff implications
Acute care toolkit 9 : provides an overview of sepsis, with useful definitions and stratification tools to support the management of this condition.
Sepsis - resources for healthcare professionals
The UK Sepsis Trust website hosts clinical toolkits covering a range of clinical settings.
Improving outcomes for patients with sepsis: A cross-system action plan highlights key challenges and issues, and summarises the actions health and care organisations will take to address them.
NHS Improvement - The adult patient who is deteriorating: sharing learning from literature, incident reports and root cause analysis investigations’ from the patient safety team at NHS Improvement summarises and references previous work on the topic to ensure that future work focuses on current patterns of harm and their causes. It also addresses aspects of sepsis and includes suggestions for applying the learning locally.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has produced a position statement on the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) for adult patients attending emergency departments.
Shared learning and resources to prevent deterioration in adult patients
A safe system for recognising and responding to children at risk of deterioration
Resources to support safer care of the deteriorating patient (adults and children)
Recognition of the deteriorating patient - BMJ Open Quality 2015
How to assess deteriorating patients - Nursing Standard 2015 (login with your NHS Open Athens account)
The effectiveness of education in the recognition and management of deteriorating patients: A systematic review - Nurse Education Today 2016

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