Rethinking early warning scores

Heys, Stephanie, Rhind, Susan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9608-3343 , Main, Camella and Pegler, Daisy (2025) Rethinking early warning scores. British Journal of Midwifery, 33 (8). pp. 463-465. Item availability may be restricted.

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Abstract

Dr Stephanie Heys, Susan Rhind, Camella Main and Daisy Pegler discuss misplaced metrics when caring for pregnant and recently pregnant women in pre-hospital care.

Despite escalating global concern around the high rates of morbidity and mortality in pregnant patients, the early signs of clinical deterioration in pregnant patients often go unrecognised, particularly in the pre-hospital environment (Ebert et al, 2020; McCullough et al, 2024). A critical, yet underappreciated, contributing factor is the application of generic early warning scores, such as the National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2). The NEWS2 has been applied with a blanket approach in the pre‑hospital setting without considering groups of patients where they are not validated, such as pregnancy and immediately following pregnancy.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	British Journal of Midwifery
Publisher:	MA Healthcare
ISSN:	2052-4307
Departments:	Institute of Health > Centre for Excellence in Paramedic Practice
Additional Information:	Susan Rhind, Senior Lecturer in Paramedic Practice, University of Cumbria, UK.
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
SWORD Depositor:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	11 Aug 2025 10:42
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2025 14:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/8992