Are GPs using clinical practice guidelines?
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate aspects of general practitioners' current use of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in daily general practice.


METHODS
Face to face, semistructured interviews.


METHODS
General practices in rural and metropolitan Australia.


METHODS
25 GPs.


METHODS
General practitioners' knowledge about CPGs; their recent use and reasons for using them; how GPs used them; where they stored them and which attributes of CPGs they considered to be most, and least, useful.


RESULTS
Each GP interviewed was able to name at least one 'guideline' that they knew about. The most commonly used was a therapeutic guideline with 'prescribing' being the most common reason for accessing a guideline. Most GPs stored guidelines in their consulting room, reading them when they felt they needed to; some also used them during the consultation and showed them to patients. General practitioners used CPGs to assist in making therapeutic decisions more frequently than when deciding when and whether to implement preventive measures.


CONCLUSIONS
The main finding from this study is that GPs are not in the main following, or accessing, the CPGs that have been developed. Strategies are required to create a culture in which evidence based guidelines are used and valued within general practice. Such a culture in which the processes of development, dissemination, implementation and evaluation of CPGs are well established, may take 5-10 years to achieve.
Mazza
D
D
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Victoria.
Russell
S J
SJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'