Translating practice guidelines into practice

The current ANS featured article is titled Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines in the Health Care Setting A Concept Analysis by Melissa Beauchemin, MPhil, RN, CPNP; Elizabeth Cohn, PhD, RN; and Rachel C. Shelton, ScD, MPH.  The article is available for download while it is features and we welcome your ideas and responses in the comments here!  These authors were concerned with the challenges of implementing clinical guidelines, and their concept analysis, and their analysis reveals 7 attributes necessary for effective implementation.  Here is a message from Melissa Beauchemin about this work:

As a research nurse practitioner in pediatric oncology, I became interested in how evidence is translated into clinical practice. I noted hesitations in integrating new evidence into clinical care, and I realized that challenges at multiple levels may present as a barrier. These observations were one of the main drivers for to pursue a PhD. I chose to focus my dissertation on guideline implementation and tools, specifically informatics-based approaches such as clinical decision support, that may be effective in translating evidence into practice. During a course in conceptual and theoretical frameworks, my professor, Dr. Elizabeth Cohn, encouraged my interest in guideline implementation, and I began writing this concept analysis. Using Walker and Avant’s methodology and in consultation with an expert in implementation science, Dr. Rachel Shelton, we searched the existing literature to inform a clear definition of a challenging concept in healthcare. I just started as a postdoctoral research fellow and continue working with our implementation science core at Columbia University, and my research interests continue to focus on an interdisciplinary approach to improve the integration and implementation of evidence-based clinical practice supportive care guidelines for pediatric, adolescent, and young adult cancer into cancer care delivery. The multi-level approaches that we outline in this concept analysis are each distinct and integral components to a successful implementation.