How to Use a Glasgow Coma Scale

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was originally developed to assess the state of a person's consciousness after a head injury. It's currently used to evaluate patients with a variety of medical conditions and injuries. The GCS scale indicates levels of consciousness ranging from deep unconsciousness to complete consciousness. A qualified health care professional will need to perform the tests needed to assess a patient's GCS score.

Things You'll Need

• Medical reference for GCS

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Instructions

• 1

  Determine the stimulus needed to open the patient's eyes. A patient whose eyes don't open at all receives 1 point for the eye portion of the GCS. Assign 2 points if the eyes open only in response to pain and 3 points if they open in response to speech. Patients get 4 points if they can open their eyes spontaneously.

• 2

  Establish the patient's verbal ability. Patients who can't make any verbal response get 1 point and those who can make noises but not words get 2 points. Patients who can say words but are unable to converse meaningfully get 3 points and those who communicate but are confused or disoriented get 4 points. A person who is fully oriented gets 5 points for the verbal portion of the GCS scale.

• 3

  Examine the patient's motor responses. Patients who make no movement at all in response to pain receive 1 point and those who can make some movement receive 2 points. Give 3 points to patients who can make abnormal posturing in response to pain. Patients who can pull a body part away from a source of pain receive 4 points and those who can make purposeful movements to eliminate the cause of pain get 5 points. Patients who can make purposeful movements in response to a command receive 6 points on the GCS scale.

• 4

  Evaluate the total GCS score. A score of eight or less indicates a severe brain injury and a score if 9 points but less than 13 points indicates a moderate brain injury. A score of 13 or 14 points indicates a minor brain injury and a score of 15 is normal.