Developing Evidence-Based Symptom Management Guidelines in HIV Care: What Have We Learned?

Abstract

Joachim G. Voss, RN, PhD, ACRN, is an Associate Professor, University of Washington, School of Nursing, Seattle, Washington, USA. Today’s clinical environments are changing rapidly, and the leaders and consumers of the current health care market demand evidence-based, safe, effective, and patient-oriented care organizations (FineoutOverholt, Melnyk, & Schultz, 2005). Accountable care organizations use evidence-based practice to deliver high-quality treatments and care, avoid costly errors, and reduce cost, while focusing on high customer satisfaction (Keren & Littlejohns, 2012). In a competitive care market, to achieve the highest standard of health care has been recognized as a benchmark for optimal patient care performance by federal and local government authorities, health care insurers, and the leaders of large and small health care facilities (Geiger, 2012; Hester, 2012; Siegwarth & Koyanagi, 2012; Steinbrook, 2012). Therefore, the assessment and implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines utilizes the accumulated research-evidence in a certain practice area, which leads to better patient outcomes, improved cost containment, and more comparable care delivery across institutions of services delivered. In order to arrive at evidence-based practice guidelines in HIV symptom management we contacted and reviewed a number of guidelines developed by professional nursing organizations (e.g., Oncology Nursing Society [http://www.ons.org/Research/PEP], Neurological Nursing Society [http://www.aann.org/pubs/ content/guidelines.html]) that have established and disseminated evidence-based practice guidelines to their memberships in print and online formats. Each