Clinical Practice Guidelines
Clinical practice guidelines, as defined by the Institute of Medicine, are statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care. They are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options.
There are many sources for clinical practice guidelines from healthcare organizations and professional bodies at the local, regional, national, and global level.
Find Guidelines
Read the directions below each link for guidance on locating clinical practice guidelines in that resource.
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)Evidence-based Practice Center Reports, Fact Sheets and AHRQ Research Studies can be found under the Research dropdown. Search by topic under the Topics link to locate implementation toolkits, research and related resources.
- Alliance for the Implimentation of Clinical Practice Guidelines (AiCPG) - Guideline Organizations and Society ResourcesGuideline collections and webpages from individual societies and professional organizations.
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowUnder, Search Options area, scroll down to, Publication Type box.Select, Practice Guidelines.
- Clinical Key for Nursing This link opens in a new windowSelect, Guidelines, in the drop down menu to the left of the search box. Or select the, Guidelines, box to browse an alphabetical list that can be further filtered by age of patient, specialties, or authoring organizations.
- ECRI Guidelines TrustA clinical practice guidelines repository. You must create a free, personal account with ECRI to use this resource.
- Guideline Summaries from Lippincott Nursing CenterLippincott NursingCenter’s team of clinical experts have reviewed, condensed, and extracted key information from lengthy practice guidelines and put them into streamlined, comprehensive guideline summaries.
- GIN: Guidelines International NetworkLinks to guidelines published or endorsed by GIN member organizations from across the globe. It also contains a registry of planned guidelines and guidelines in development.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowClick, Additional filters, button. Select, Guideline, in ARTICLE TYPE box. Click, Show, button. Select, Guideline, in MY NCBI FILTERS column.
- RNAO Best Practice GuidelinesRegistered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) has more than 50 Best Practice Guidelines (BPGs) covering nine categories: children and youth; clinical; equity, diversity and inclusion; foundational; health system; healthy work environment; mental health and substance use; older adults; and population health.
The BPGs are freely available and organized alphabetically on the page.
- The Community GuideA collection of evidence-based recommendations and findings from the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF). Select, Publications & Resources. Then, What Works or One-Pagers. The site also contains strategies for implementing interventions and evaluating public health program effectiveness.
- Trip Medical Database This link opens in a new windowClinical search engine designed to allow clinicians to quickly find answers to their clinical questions.