Clinical Guidelines

Clinical Guidelines
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Clinical guidelines are designed to provide succinct instructions to healthcare professionals on how to offer healthcare services. Clinical practice guidelines statements are developed systematically to help practitioners in making appropriate patient decisions for specific clinical conditions. Clinical practice guidelines assist healthcare providers, policymakers, and consumers, payers in making a choice on how certain heath illnesses can be effectively and appropriately prevented, treated and managed. These guidelines have the ability to improve the quality or process of care as well as patient outcomes. CPGs are expected to be followed. A transparent methodology is used in creating these guidelines that translate the best evidence into clinical practice to better patient outcomes (Sox & Stewart, 2015).
On the other hand, practice standards are created for the purpose of directing and maintaining a safe and clinically competent practice. These standards indicate the anticipated and attainable level of performance against the actual performance of a health care provider. These standards are established by an employer through organizational policies or established by state and federal laws as widely accepted guidelines. Practice standards help healthcare organization to create harmless staffing practices, delegate responsibilities to certified and unlicensed persons and ensure there is enough documentation.

Violation of practice standards can expose employees and a healthcare organization to liability and possible loss of licensure (Fisher, 2017).
Algorithms are designed to solve simple issues which have a systematic way that is set for addressing the problem. Algorithms are not appropriate for handling complex decisions that have multiple choices. On the other hand, guidelines can offer comprehensive and multiple ways to solve a complex problem. Clinical algorithms are used by various organizations to improve the quality of healthcare (Gómez-Ríos, et al., 2018).
I see myself using Clinical guidelines as a guide when making decisions regarding patients. These guidelines will be followed to ensure that I do not deviate from what is expected. Practice standards will guide my behavior and actions in clinical practice. Algorithms will be used as maps that will ease the process of making a diagnosis, treatment, and management of an illness.
I have always used evidence-based practice in my nursing career but do not understand why it is used and why it works. Evidence-based practice is emphasized in nursing practice and it is vital to understand why it is used.
References
Fisher, M. (2017). Professional standards for nursing practice: How do they shape contemporary rehabilitation nursing practice?. Journal of the Australasian Rehabilitation Nurses Association, 20(1), 4.
Gómez-Ríos, M. A., Gaitini, L., Matter, I., & Somri, M. (2018). Guidelines and algorithms for managing the difficult airway. Revista Española de Anestesiología y Reanimación (English Edition), 65(1), 41-48.
Sox, H. C., & Stewart, W. F. (2015). Algorithms, clinical practice guidelines, and standardized clinical assessment and management plans: Evidence-based patient management standards in evolution. Academic Medicine, 90(2), 129-132.