Authors

  1. Gannaway, Paula MLS, MEd

Article Content

In the search for the highest levels of evidence, locating guidelines is often the most difficult for nursing students and professionals. Multiple locator tools are employed to find the most current and credible guidelines. Point-of-care databases, such as DynaMed, Clinical Key, and UpToDate, provide evidence-based syntheses for clinical decision making and appropriate guidelines with references. When searching health care databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE) for research studies or systematic reviews, adding "AND guidelines" to the search strategy should provide articles discussing the testing or use of a guideline. A guideline's full text is typically located with the authoring association or organization. Searching for a "specific guideline title" using an Internet browser locates freely available guidelines. However, there may be questions about currency and whether experts developed the guideline with a systematic review of the evidence. Emergency Care Research Institute Guidelines Trust serves as a centralized repository of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines that are vetted with Institute of Medicine standards.1 To be included in the repository, guidelines are assessed for currency and trustworthiness. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides archiving for National Clearinghouse guidelines.2 Locating guidelines is often a treasure hunt.

 

References

 

1. ECRI Institute. Guidelines Trust. https://guidelines.ecri.org/. Published 2018. Accessed March 12, 2019. [Context Link]

 

2. Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. Guidelines and Measures Updates. https://www.ahrq.gov/gam/updates/index.html. Updated September 2018. Accessed March 12, 2019. [Context Link]