PAWS: Prevention of alcohol withdrawal syndrome
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Course Overview
This initial case study introduces you to a hospital patient who would be screened for alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
This section gives you basic written information about recognizing alcohol intoxication in patients.
This case study shows a brief scenario of a nurse using the CIWA-Ar to assess a patient for alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
This section gives you written information on the various symptoms of alcohol withdrawal syndrome. It also shows the levels of risk associated with each score on the CIWA-Ar.
This case study shows a brief scenario of a Physician's Assistant using the CIWA-Ar to assess a patient for alcohol withdrawal syndrome.
This section gives you the opportunity to download a .pdf version of the CIWA-Ar. It also has an interactive version of the CIWA-Ar to try out.
This section has links to additional resources regarding assessing alcohol withdrawal syndrome. It also includes background information on this course.

 

The purpose of this course is to teach nursing staff to use the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment of Alcohol Scale, Revised (CIWA-Ar) to screen medical and surgical patients for the risk of developing Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS).

AWS is a set of signs and symptoms that can develop in alcohol dependent individuals within 6-24 hours after the patients' last alcoholic drink.

If left untreated, AWS can be a serious threat to the well being of surgical, trauma, and acutely ill VA patients and can lead to death by respiratory failure and cardiovascular collapse.
Course Overview Alcohol Intoxication Case Study Assessing Alcohol Intoxication CIWA-Ar Case Study #1 Symptoms of AWS & Levels of RIsk CIWA-Ar Case Study #2 Explore the CIWA-Ar Additional Resources & Information