title: Finding and evaluating clinical practice guidelines.
abstract: Clinical practice guidelines are valuable, clinical decision-making aids for preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, and palliative patient care. This article identifies ways to access clinical practice guidelines and discusses evaluative criteria for identifying gold-standard evidence-based practice guidelines. Finally, clinicians are reminded of crucial questions to ask before applying any guidelines to patient care.
authors.affiliation: Research and Doctoral Program, Saint Louis University School of Nursing, St. Louis, Mo., USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McSweeney
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spies
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Cann
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*