Journal of advanced nursing
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Review
Critical care outreach services and early warning scoring systems: a review of the literature.
The aim of this paper is to explore the literature relating to critical care outreach services and the use of early warning scoring systems to detect developing critical illness. ⋯ The paper concludes that further study is required to evaluate the effectiveness of critical care outreach services and early warning scoring systems, and that ward staff need to be educated to identify those patients at risk of developing critical illness. Finally, it is suggested that nurses' decision-making in relation to calling the outreach team requires further investigation.