Procedures for using clinical practice guidelines.
OBJECTIVE
This article provides information about clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) to facilitate their application to the practice of speech-language pathology. CPGs are sets of recommendations based on evidence, including expert clinical opinion, that have been developed by a panel of reviewers. In this article, CPGs are defined and their components and rationale for use are discussed. A guide for analyzing CPGs critically and recommendations for applying them to clinical practice are also described.


METHODS
Two of the authors and 1 graduate student in speech-language pathology independently evaluated a CPG from the early intervention literature using the guide described in the article. An illustrative evaluation of a CPG is presented to facilitate application of the proposed critiquing guide.


RESULTS
The guide was revealed to have high interrater reliability. However, analysis of the raters' responses to the individual items revealed problems with 3 items. The authors present possible resolutions and/or explanations for the problems.


CONCLUSIONS
By using the proposed guide, speech-language pathologists can increase their application of research to clinical practice, thereby enhancing their skills in informed clinical decision making.
Hargrove
Patricia
P
Minnesota State University, Mankato, Mankato, MN 56001, USA. patricia.hargrove@mnsu.edu
Griffer
Mona
M
Lund
Bonnie
B
D002648:Child; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology