Clinical practice guidelines

Abstract

In the context of the Implementation Forum, we are interested in the application of clinical practice guidelines.To that end, we include this introduction to the topic of clinical practice guidelines.This article describes the development, implementation, and appraisal of clinical practice guidelines.It also explores ways of increasing their use in nursing.Clinical practice guidelines are "systematically developed statements to assist practitioner decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances." 1 Guidelines can be used to reduce inappropriate variations in practice and to promote the delivery of high quality, evidence-based health care.They may also provide a mechanism by which healthcare professionals can be made accountable for clinical activities. 2 Although most of the development and evaluation of clinical guidelines has occurred in the field of medicine, nurses are becoming more interested in the use of guidelines as one means of facilitating evidence-based practice.