Project Title: Factors Facilitating and Maximizing Learning about Nursing Best Practice Guidelines through the Pilot Project Process

Research Team:
Berta, W.
Ng, S.

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are defined by the US Institute of Medicine as "systematically developed statements and recommendations to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical conditions". Practice guidelines are designed to facilitate the transfer of research evidence into practice, guide complex clinical and patient decision-making, and reduce variation in practice. This last aspect is one that has attracted the attention of policy makers in addition to practitioners; the standardization of care practices not only facilitates achieving baseline levels of care quality within the health care sector in which the CPGs are applied, it also offers the potential to realize efficiencies in the delivery of care. CPGs have been shown to improve the performance of physicians and to promote the delivery of high quality, evidence-based health care. In the field of nursing, CPGs are generally referred to as nursing best practice guidelines (NBPGs).

This project received seed funding from the M-THAC Opportunities Fund. It will form the basis of the PhD thesis of San Ng.