title: The background to the national clinical guidelines for the prevention and management of pressure sores.
abstract: Clinical guidelines are systematically developed statements to assist health-care professionals in decision-making and should be viewed as a means of improving clinical effectiveness. The NHS Executive wishes to encourage their development and use. To this end it has commissioned a number of clinical guidelines. As these will be used in a number of health-care settings, the need for multiagency and multiprofessional care is recognized. The main themes of the guidelines are that care should be patient focused, clinically useful and multidisciplinary. This article introduces a monthly series in the British Journal of Nursing examining the national clinical guidelines for pressure sore prevention and management.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dealey
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006113:United Kingdom