Five years ago the BPNA's audit group were wrestling with how to achieve a consensus on which coma scale for children we should endorse. This stimulated further clinical audit and Council endorsed the Child's Glasgow Coma Scale1,2,3. It was also adopted by UK PICU nurses, through a paediatric bench-marking group and I was delighted to see it in the recent NICE evidence based guideline for the management of head injury (acquired brain injury). Our work and the research and audit it stimulated especially in Birmingham and Newcastle really has impacted clinical care.

I am very grateful to Carlos de Sousa for his continuing work on our BPNA Audit & Guidelines Toolbox. I hope we have something on line at the BPNA web-site by January 2004. Members will be able to download tools such as data sheets and guidelines; both drafts and endorsed documents will be available to members, and eventually the public. Sorry it is taking longer than originally anticipated!

A simple table to audit waiting times for children undergoing MRI and EEG has been developed and piloted in Nottingham. This will be in the Audit & Guidelines Toolbox, and paper copies will be available at the January meeting in Sheffield. We can then compare waiting times for the same investigations in different hospitals and different Strategic Health Authority regions.

Please refer to the May Newsletter for a review of current projects.

All are welcome to our open audit meeting on Saturday after lunch, at the January meeting in Sheffield 24 January 2004.

References

1. Tatman A, Warren A, Williams A, Powell J, Whitehouse W. Development of a Paediatric Coma Scale in Intensive Care Clinical Practice. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1997;77:519-521.

2. Wong CP, Forsyth RJ, Kelly TP, Eyre JA. Incidence, aetiology, and outcome of non-traumatic coma: a population based study. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2001;84:193-9.

3. Kirkham F. Non-traumatic coma. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2001;85:303-12.