Development of Evidence based Nursing Practice Guideline Document Model for Electronic Distribution

Abstract

Current reviews have shown that the mere existence of paper-based guidelines does not necessarily lead to changes in practice. One response to the guideline dissemination problem has been to increase accessibility by making highly structured practice guidelines available online. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an online evidence based nursing practice guideline document model that includes a comprehensive set of concepts to be useful throughout the guideline life cycle. The primary models used to form the core set of this study's guideline document were Iowa model, Guideline Elements Model(GEM), and National Guideline Clearinghouse(NGC) model. The major concepts in the model hierarchy below the upper category level are identity, developer, purpose, intended audience, target population, development method, testing, knowledge, and appendix. Each of these elements, in turn, comprises one or more additional levels of guideline constructs. This model can be used as a first step in translating paperbased, narrative guidelines into formats that can be electronically. Next steps in our work with this model will involve refining the model, and building and disseminating the online evidence based nursing practice guidelines with the model developed in this study.