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Guidelines
Guidelines (also known as clinical practice guidelines, practice guidelines, and CPG's) are high-level evidence because a group of experts has reviewed the existing evidence on a topic, graded the evidence, and made recommendations for how to implement the evidence in a clinical setting. Guidelines can be developed on the international, national, state, and local level by health organizations, hospitals, and other groups, but always check the quality and authorship to be sure it is trustworthy and can be used in patient care.
Guideline Sources
You can find guidelines by searching for part of your topic (usually a specific disease, condition, or intervention) through the sources below.
Check guideline-producing sites & organizations.
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TRIPdatabase.comOpen access clinical search engine. Create an account and list University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as your institution to get the Find@UNC button on listings.
Check databases by searching for part of your topic and selecting "Guideline" or "Practice Guideline" from the Publication Type or Article Type filter.
Check the websites of trusted professional organizations (See the list of examples)
- Search the web for part of your topic and the words "practice guideline" or "clinical guideline"
- Go to an organization's website and search on their site for guidelines they have posted
Guideline Appraisal Tools
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Clinical Practice Guideline Appraisal ToolsFrom "Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust" (2011)
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines; Graham R, Mancher M, Miller Wolman D, et al., editors. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011. doi: 10.17226/13058
- Hayward RSA, Wilson MC, Tunis SR, Bass EB, Guyatt G. Users' Guides to the Medical Literature VIII. How to Use Clinical Practice Guidelines A. Are the Recommendations Valid?. JAMA. 1995;274(7):570–574. doi:10.1001/jama.1995.03530070068032
- Wilson MC, Hayward RSA, Tunis SR, et al. Users' Guides to the Medical Literature VIII. How to Use Clinical Practice Guidelines B. What Are the Recommendations and Will They Help You in Caring for Your Patients?. JAMA. 1995;274(20):1630–1632. doi:10.1001/jama.1995.03530200066040
- Buccheri RK. Critical appraisal tools and reporting guidelines for evidence-based practice. Worldviews on evidence-based nursing. 12/2017;14(6):463-472. doi: 10.1111/wvn.12258.
- Siebenhofer A, Semlitsch T, Herborn T, Siering U, Kopp I, Hartig J. Validation and reliability of a guideline appraisal mini-checklist for daily practice use. BMC Medical Research Methodology. 2016;16:39. doi:10.1186/s12874-016-0139-x.
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Semlitsch T, Blank WA, Kopp IB, Siering U, Siebenhofer A. Evaluating Guidelines: A Review of Key Quality Criteria. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International. 2015;112(27-28):471-478. doi:10.3238/arztebl.2015.0471.
- Siering U, Eikermann M, Hausner E, Hoffmann-Eßer W, Neugebauer EA. Appraisal Tools for Clinical Practice Guidelines: A Systematic Review. Tu Y-K, ed. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(12):e82915. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082915.
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Clubb AB, Dahm P. How to critically appraise a clinical practice guideline. Indian Journal of Urology : IJU : Journal of the Urological Society of India. 2011;27(4):498-502. doi:10.4103/0970-1591.91441.
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Graham ID. A comparison of clinical practice guideline appraisal instruments. International journal of technology assessment in health care. 2000;16(4):1024-1038.