Development of evidence-based guidelines in midwifery and gynaecology nursing

Objective: to develop an effective and efficient method for basing nursing practice on research evidence. Setting: the Royal Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Method: nurses and midwives from various clinical areas were invited to participate in an evidence-based practice project. Standard procedures for retrieving relevant articles and evaluating their quality were observed. Where possible, raw data from studies with similar methods were summarised using appropriate statistical tests. Findings: several guidelines have been developed, staff involved with the project have become ‘research literate’ and the project is contributing to the hospital-wide quality improvement activities. Conclusions and implications for practice: it is possible to translate research findings into practice when small groups use systematic reviews to develop practice guidelines.