Finding Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical practice guidelines aim to help providers choose appropriate healthcare options for specific clinical circumstances. You may need to find these guidelines to support your coursework. This guide provides instructions on how to find guidelines in the library databases, eBooks, and organization and government websites.

Search Everything

Your best bet for finding clinical practice guidelines is to use the Search Everything box on the library homepage and add a search term of guidelines to your search. Example search: statins AND "heart disease" AND guidelines.

You also use filters in a few of our databases to find guidelines. Below are instructions for databases with guideline filters.

Databases with Guideline Filters

CINAHL with Full Text

To find guidelines in this database, follow the steps below.

1. Select the database link above. This will take you directly to the advanced search page.
2. Enter your keywords in the search box.
3. Move down to Limit Your Results.
4. Select Practice Guidelines under the Publication Type menu, as shown in the image below, and select Search.

DynaMed Plus

To find guidelines in this database, follow the steps below.

1. Select the database link above.
2. Enter your keywords in the search box.
3. Select the magnifying glass to search.
4. Select the title of the result that best identifies your topic. 
5. Select Guidelines and Resources in the left-hand navigation menu. The image below highlights the guidelines option in the left-hand navigation menu for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Medline Complete

To find guidelines in this database, follow the steps below.

1. Select the database link above. This will take you directly to the advanced search page.
2. Enter your keywords in the search box.
3. Move down to Limit Your Results.
4. Select Practice Guideline under the Publication Type menu, as shown in the image below, and select Search.

PubMed

To find guidelines in this database, follow the steps below.

1. Select the database link above.
2. Enter your keywords in the search box.
3. Select Search.
4. Move down and select Additional Filters on the left-hand side of the search results.
5. Select Article Type in the left-hand navigation menu.
6. Select Practice Guideline from the menu, as shown in the image below, and select Show.