What is involved in developing a guideline?
The development panel, assisted by project staff, define the scope of a particular guideline, conduct an extensive literature review, review articles and published guidelines on relevant topic areas, then identify themes leading to the actual recommendations through a consensus process. Draft recommendations are reviewed by a diverse stakeholder group comprising of patients, their family members, relevant members of the interdisciplinary team, researchers, administrators, staff nurses as well as other specialist nurses. The guideline is then subjected to an eight-month pilot implementation phase (sites are selected through a request for proposal process), evaluation and dissemination (distribution, marketing and promotion of the guidelines). It takes approximately two years to bring a guideline to the nursing community.
