Abstract
Evidence-based practice guidelines are increasingly used by healthcare professionals to guide patient care and effect positive patient outcomes. These guidelines are usually based on laboratory-based parameters and lack the psychosocial dimensions of patient care. The authors describe the process used by a hospital-based interdisciplinary team to successfully develop evidence-based psychosocial guidelines designed to foster hopefulness in pediatric patients with cancer, their families, and their healthcare providers. From these guidelines, 4 clinical care projects were developed and are described in this article.
Evidence-based practice guidelines are used increasingly by healthcare professionals to direct patient care and effect positive patient outcomes. These guidelines are frequently based on laboratory-based parameters, such as hyperkalemia and hyponatremia, and diagnosis-specific clinical situations. 1-3 Such guidelines have contributed notably to medical and nursing practices. However, the art and science of direct patient care also include psychosocial dimensions. Direct care providers derive role-related meaning from being competent in both the technical and the psychosocial aspects of their roles. 4 Therefore, the patient care services (PCS) leadership group in our hospital approved a plan to develop a team for translating psychosocial research findings into practice guidelines. The specific charge to this team was to focus on hope research related to adolescents with cancer and to develop evidence-based practice guidelines appropriate for the cancer care setting at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.