title: OC10 - Inter-rater agreement of the Paediatric Early Warning Score tools used in the central Denmark region.
abstract: Theme: Patient safety Background: Paediatric Early Warning Score (PEWS) tools can assist healthcare providers in the rapid detection and recognition of changes in patient condition. In the central Denmark region two different PEWS tools tested in large-scale RCT study. However, data from PEWS instruments are only as reliable and accurate as the caregiver who obtains and documents the parameters.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose was to evaluate the inter-rater agreement among nurses using the PEWS systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted in five paediatrics departments. Inter-observer reliability was investigated through simultaneous blinded PEWS assessment on the same patients by two nurses. Fleiss' kappa was utilized to determine the level of agreement among the raters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With a paucity of published reliability testing studies, this research attempts to address identified research gaps and will thus inform nursing practice.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital.|Aarhus University, Denmark.
authors.forename: Claus Sixtus
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aagaard
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vebert Olesen
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirkegaard
keywords: Inter-rater agreement; PEWS; Paediatric Early Warning Score; reliability.