Clinical deterioration in hospitalized children: integrative review of a pediatric early warning score

Objective: review the literature with regard to using the Brighton Paediatric Early Warning Score as an instrument to identify signs of clinical deterioration in hospitalized children and possibilities of its application to the Brazilian context. Method: integrative review, conducted in August 2015, with search in the databases MedLine and CINAHL, by using the terms “early warning score” AND “pediatric.” Results: the final sample consisted of 11 studies, whose variables under analysis were authors, country of origin, journal, year of publication, design, population, and main results. Conclusion: the Brighton Paediatric Early Warning Score was used, in most studies, as a tool to measure warning signs of clinical deterioration in hospitalized children, and it may be regarded as a scoring option to be used in Brazil. The absence of works on the use of early warning scores in Brazil suggests the need for research on this theme. Descriptors: patient acuity; alert; hospitalized child.