LibGuides: Nursing LibGuide: Clinical Guidelines

Clinical Guidelines

You should always first refer to the specific clinical guidelines which are recommended for the Ward, Department or Service where you are working. If you are not sure ask a senior member of staff for assistance.

Clinical practice guidelines outline the recommended best practice for patient care and should be based on the most current research evidence.

If you are looking for clinical guidelines on a topic you can often find national and international guidelines by doing a simple internet search on your topic and "guidelines". You can include .au to limit your results to Australia and .gov to limit to government sites including official Health sites.

Producing Guidelines

SWSLHD Policy Development Resources
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The Policy Development Resources page is located on the SWSLHD Risk & Policy Unit intranet site. It offers resources and information relating to the development, review and management of Policies, Procedures and Guidelines (PPGs). For internal use only.
Guidelines for Guidelines Handbook (NHMRC)
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Guidelines for Guidelines is an online resource comprised of a collection of peer reviewed modules. Together they form a handbook that covers every aspect of the planning, development, review, implementation and updating of guidelines.

Clinical Guidelines on the Intranet

SWSLHD Policy, Procedures & Guidelines can be found on the Intranet - for internal access only

The NSQHS Standards

National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards
The primary aims of the NSQHS Standards are to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. The eight NSQHS Standards provide a nationally consistent statement about the level of care consumers can expect from health services.

Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards - Live searches

These PubMed live searches have been developed, tested and endorsed as part of the Health Libraries for the National Standards Research Project (HeLiNS), a joint initiative of Health Libraries Australia and Health Libraries Inc. The searches provide updated results for topics aligned to the Australian National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards.

These searches provide access to current evidence on topics related to best practice in Australian health services:

Key sources for Clinical Guidelines

Agency for Clinical Innovation
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We are the lead agency for innovation in clinical care in NSW. We bring patients, clinicians and managers together to support the design and implementation of innovation in healthcare
BMJ Best Practice (via CIAP use StaffID to login)
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Evidence-based monographs - Diagnosis/ Treatment / Procedures. Guidelines linked under Resources
CEC - NSW Clinical Excellence Commission
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The Clinical Excellence Commission is the lead agency supporting safety and quality improvement in the NSW Health system.
International Guidelines Library
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The GIN international guideline library and registry of guidelines in development, powered by EBSCO, contains guidelines from across the globe in many languages, both published and in development
Medline (via CIAP use StaffID to login)
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You can limit your search results to the 'Guideline' Publication Type
Ministry of Health Policy Distribution System (PDS)
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All policy documents applicable to the NSW Health system are issued by the Ministry of Health through the Policy Distribution System. NSW Health organisations must have systems in place to distribute policy documents to staff and organisations under their control and to monitor compliance. Ministry of Health staff should refer to the NSW Health Intranet for procedures on processing policy directives, guidelines and information bulletins.
Therapeutic Guidelines (via CIAP use StaffID to login)
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Therapeutic Guidelines is a leading source of independent, evidence-based, practical treatment advice to assist practitioners with decision making at the point-of-care.
UpToDate (via CIAP use StaffID to login)
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Provides evidence-based summary & recommendations. Find clinical guidelines linked as "Society Guideline Links"

Guidelines on CIAP (Clinical Information Access Portal)

There is a tab in CIAP where you will find sources for clinical guidelines

Each of the CIAP speciality guides will list relevant guidelines, for example the Aboriginal Health Speciality Guide