The Journal of neuroscience nursing : journal of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses
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The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was developed in 1974 to objectively describe neurological status and predict outcome in neuroscience patients. Through the years, the GCS has become the gold standard for coma assessment. Despite its widespread use, the GCS has many limitations that are well documented in the literature. ⋯ The interrater reliability for the GCS was good (k(w) = .738), and that for the FOUR score was excellent (k(w) = .951). Outcome prediction analysis showed that the FOUR score and the GCS are both able to predict in-hospital morbidity and poor outcome at the end of hospitalization. The results from this pediatric study were consistent with the adult studies which suggest that the FOUR score is a reliable and valid tool for use in a wide variety of neuroscience patients.