Swisher Library: NUR 630: Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Practice Guidelines

Permission

Information on this guide was borrowed with permission from the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library.

What are Practice Guidelines?

"A set of recommendations defining conditions for using or not using available interventions in clinical or public health practice. Practice guidelines may be evidence-based and referred to as evidence-based guidelines or evidence-based recommendations."

Source: Riegelman, R.K. (2005). Studying a study & testing a test: How to read the medical evidence. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Practice Guidelines Resources

Guidelines International Network (GIN)
International database of guidelines published or endorsed by GIN members. Includes published guidelines and registry for guidelines in development.
ECRI Guidelines Trust
Freely accessible database of clinical practice guidelines; free registration required to access. All guidelines are in English, < 5 years old, and systematically developed. Provided by the ECRI Institute. Previously called National Guideline Clearinghouse.

Practice Guidelines in PubMed

Searches in PubMed can be limited to only display Practice Guidelines. After performing a search in PubMed, click "More..." under Article types in the filters menu, select "Practice Guidelines" from the pop-up list, and click Show. This does not actually filter the list; it only gives you the option to filter on your search results page. To filter the results, click "Practice Guidelines" so it displays in bold. You should now see that your results list is much shorter and restricted to Practice Guidelines only.

Practice Guidelines in MEDLINE

Searches in MEDLINE can also be limited to only display Practice Guidelines. On the main search screen under Limits, scroll to "Practice Guidelines" in the Publication Types. Select this from the list and then proceed with your search.