ABOUT

Information about the NEWS2 programme

INTRODUCTION

Following its launch in 2012, the NEWS has been widely adopted across the NHS, with over 280,000 healthcare professionals having completed the online competency training in the use of NEWS.

After launching the NEWS, the RCP encouraged feedback on user experience of the NEWS in routine clinical practice, and suggestions for improvement in any of the NEWS-related processes. The remit of the NEWS Review Group was to review these suggestions and decide whether any changes to the NEWS process and charts were necessary.

This review was enhanced by inclusion of numerous peer-reviewed research publications, evaluating and validating the NEWS in various clinical settings in the NHS and beyond.

For this NEWS2 update and based on feedback from users, particular attention was paid to four important themes.

  • Determining how the NEWS2 could be used to better identify patients likely to have sepsis who were at immediate risk of serious clinical deterioration and required urgent clinical intervention
  • Highlighting that that a NEWS2 score of 5 or more is a key threshold for an urgent clinical alert and response
  • Improving the recording of the use of oxygen and the NEWS2 scoring of recommended oxygen saturations in patients with hypercapnic respiratory failure (most often due to COPD)
  • Recognising the importance of new-onset confusion, disorientation, delirium or any acute reduction in the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score as a sign of potentially serious clinical deterioration, by including new confusion as part of the AVPU scoring scale (which becomes ACVPU).

Various additional refinements to the NEWS2 chart were also considered and implemented.

TIMELINE

2012

NEWSDIG Study 1

RCP releases first report recommending the standardisation of early warning scores across the NHS.
2012

NEWS Edition 1

The first release of the NEWS Acute Care eLearning module and associated learning platform.
2013

NEWS Edition 2

Content and platform update to meet increasing user demand.
2015

NEWS Edition 3

Introduction of enhanced case studies.
2016

NEWS Edition 4

New modules released covering Mental Health, Primary Care, Ambulance Care and Care/Community Homes.
2017

NEWSDIG Study 2

Release of updated NEWS report from RCP, detailing the incorporation of sepsis, hypercapnic patients and new confusion into NEWS.
2018

NEWS Edition 4.1

Update of existing modules to include new RCP guidance.
2018

NEWS platform update

NEWS platform update – deployment of a new Learning Management System to support delivery of the NEWS modules.
2018

NEWS App

First edition of the NEWS calculation app released.
2018

NEWS Edition 5

Fully updated modules, reworked from the ground up to improve user experience.

CONTRIBUTORS

Derek Bell

Derek Bell

Professor of Acute Medicine, Imperial College

Rachel Binks

Rachel Binks

Nurse Consultant for Acute and Digital Care, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust

Lesley Durham

Lesley Durham

Director and Lead Nurse, North of England Critical Care Network / National Outreach Forum

Nicholas Blackwell

Nicholas Blackwell

Director, OCB Media

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Produced by

Royal College of PhysiciansNIHR CLAHRC Northwest LondonNIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre