Nursing Resource Guide

“Clinical practice guidelines are statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care that are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and harms of alternative care options.”

Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines; Graham R, Mancher M, Miller Wolman D, et al., editors. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2011.   doi: 10.17226/13058

There is no one central resource to locate all professional guidelines, but this page provides information on how and where to find them.

Hosted on the Rittenhouse R2 platform, this collection includes standards, guidelines, policies and procedures across many nursing specialties.

Please note that not all resources have been purchased. Many have a limited number of previews, after which point the library will evaluate them for purchase.

If you are only able to view the table of contents, please check back at a later date. You can also show your interest in a resource through our purchase recommendation form at http://redcap.link/purchase.

From the "Publication Type" menu, select "Practice Guidelines".

You can do this either within the Advanced Search, or by refining your results (under "Show more" of "Limit To").

In the search bar, click "All Types" and select "Guidelines".

Alternatively, you can browse all of ClinicalKey for Nursing's guidelines. In the categories below the search box, click "See more clinical content types" and then select "Guidelines".

From the search results page, look for the "Article Type" filter and click "See all article type filters". Select "Practice Guideline".

In the Advanced Search, click "Edit Limits".

Look for "Publication Types" and select "Practice Guideline."

In addition to the library's resources, you can also look for practice guidelines through the following places:

• ECRI Guidelines Trust
• U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Recommendations
• World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines
• American College of Physicians
• CDC Medical Guidelines and Recommendations
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Guidelines can also be found through specialty-specific organizations, including the following:

• American Academy of Pediatrics, particularly the Neonatal Resuscitation Collection (requires login) 
• American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) Guidelines
• American Cancer Society Prevention & Early Detection Guidelines
• American College of Cardiology Practice Guidelines & Quality Standards
• American Diabetes Association - Standards of Care in Diabetes
• American Heart Association - Guidelines and Statements