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Gibson D. Lewis Library Libguides

Clinical Practice Guidelines

Finding Clinical Practice Guidelines

Finding clinical practice guidelines can be very challenging, especially if you are looking for guidelines that address a very rare condition or one that hasn't been extensively studied. However, your best bet will be using library resources-- follow the directions below!

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LIBRARIAN'S TIP: Before you begin, it might be useful to find any synonyms or related terms for the condition you are wanting to treat. To do so, you will need to learn what the Medical Subject Heading is for your research topic. The National Library of Medicine manages the MeSH thesaurus to maintain a controlled vocabulary. MeSH includes the subject headings (like hashtags for a topic) that appear in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases. 

 

Ways to Find Clinical Practice Guidelines

The library offers various ways to find practice guidelines. You can use one or all of the options below, in any order you would like. Alternatively, use the tabs on the left to explore specific clinical practice guideline resources.

ClinicalKey is a great resource for clinical practice guidelines and oftentimes, the best bet. To access ClinicalKey:

  1. Start at the library website
  2. Scroll to the white toolbar, titled "GET STARTED" 
  3. Click on the blue "A-Z Database List" button in the "FIND A DATABASE" box
  4. Access ClinicalKey by using the search bar, letter filter, or scrolling
  5. On ClinicalKey, click on the "Guidelines" box and search for your desired topic

If ClinicalKey doesn't have a guideline related to the topic you're looking for, PubMed is your next best bet. To search for practice guidelines on PubMed:

  1. Start at the library website
  2. Scroll to the white toolbar, titled "GET STARTED" 
  3. Click on the blue "A-Z Database List" button in the "FIND A DATABASE" box
  4. Access PubMed by using the search bar, letter filter, or scrolling
  5. On PubMed, type the name of the condition you're wanting to find a practice guideline for and press search
  6. On the left side of the screen, look for the button that says "Additional filters" in the menu of filters
  7. In the menu that pops up, look for the "Practice Guideline" filter and click on the blue, "Show" button

  1. Under the "Article Type" filter, make sure to check the box next to "Practice Guideline" so it updates the search results list

If you've checked both ClinicalKey and PubMed (using the Practice Guideline filter) and you can't find anything, there is a chance no clinical practice guideline for your topic exists. As a last resort option, you could expand your search to other types of publications from professional organizations (like practice bulletins, advisories, standards, etc.). To do that:

  1. Go to PubMed
  2. Click on the "Advanced" search feature under the search box
  3. Type the name of the condition you're searching for and click "ADD" 
  4. Then type: [ advisory OR statement OR "practice guideline" OR consensus OR "practice bulletin" OR committee ] and click "AND"
  5. Press search and browse the list of results for a practice guideline or the next best thing (practice bulletin, standard of practice, consensus statment, etc.)

Recently Published Practice Guidelines

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