Waterlow score

The Waterlow score (or Waterlow scale) gives an estimated risk for the development of a pressure sore in a given patient. The tool was developed in 1985 by clinical nurse teacher Judy Waterlow.

Scoring criteria

The following areas are assessed for each patient and assigned a point value.

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Additional points in special risk categories are assigned to selected patients.

  • Tissue malnutrition
  • Neurological deficit
  • Major surgery or trauma

Potential scores range from 1 to 64.[1] A total Waterlow score ≥10 indicates risk for pressure ulcer. A high risk score is ≥15. A very high risk exists at scores ≥20. The reverse side of the Waterlow score lists examples of preventive aids and interventions.[2]

Criticism

While packaged conveniently as a laminated card, the score has received criticism owing to its large number of scored items. This, combined with a lack of operational definitions, may reduce its reliability.[1]

gollark: ```<status.osmarks.tk> [BEES EXPUNGED] [13/Jun/2020:17:49:05 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 20197 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/83.0.4103.61 Safari/537.36" secure```
gollark: The log files are... mostly just "checking for updates".
gollark: Here is more potatoS pictureß.
gollark: Did you know? Potatoes are not capable of speech. If you hear a potato speaking to you, this is likely to be a bug.
gollark: I doubt it, because they DON'T SPEAK.

See also

References
  1. Waterlow Score - Tool Evaluation: Melbourne Health
  2. "Waterlow Score Card". Retrieved July 10, 2012.
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