Institute Of Medicine: Clinical Practice Guidelines

What is clinical practice guidelines (CPG)? The Institute of Medicine of United States defines CPG as, statements and guidelines that have resulted from systematic reviews that are then translated into recommendations or guidelines to improve patient outcomes (Mohamed, 2014). Simply defined, CPG’s compile all evidence and research and implement guidelines into practice, therefore, connecting evidence to practice. This is vital to the health care field because after comparing extensive research studies it is important that health care organizations and health care workers are implementing the best known practice to enhance the quality of care that is given to patients. CPG’s are used as a means to direct clinical recommendations and practice

First and second step in developing a guideline is establishing transparency and avoiding conflicts of interest. Establishing transparency is imperative because it shows guideline users how the guidelines were formed and easily can show any conflict of interest (Hollon, et al., 2014). The third step in the development should display a round group of individuals that include clinical and research expertise (Hollon, et al., 2014). This helps guideline users gain even more trust in a guideline because it was conducted by a panel of experts in the field. Next, interaction between the expert multidisciplinary panel and system review team is debated and then the rating strength of recommendations (Hollon, et al., 2014). The fifth step is key because it illustrates the quality of evidence relating to the particular CPG and consequently, increases the reliance of a CPG if the best quality of evidence is used. Another key of the development of CPG is the articulation of the recommendation (Hollon, et al., 2014). The more clear and precise the guideline, the better. Then an external review should be conducted. Being able to review and analyze the guideline before publication is essential to ensure there are no mistakes (Hollon, et al., 2014). Lastly, updating the guideline periodically should be done in order to keep guidelines current (Hollon, et al.,

A downsides of CPG is that it can generalize care to patients. Although this could be viewed as an advantage the problem that arises is that care needs to be individualized at the same time. In addition, guidelines don’t include all possible variables for each patient and therefore should use caution when applying a guideline to an individual (Long,