Clinical Guidelines are intended to aide clinical decision making. They are NOT strict rules or protocols, but are recommendations for clinicians about the care of patients with specific conditions based on systematic review of research evidence.
As of July 2018, the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) and National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) websites, including the primary content of guideline and measure summaries, respectively, are no longer available.
Guidelines are often produced at national or international levels by medical associations or governmental bodies, but can also be created by local healthcare providers.
In addition to providers' websites, databases such as CINAHL, Medline, and PubMed can be searched for using the “guideline” filter under “article types".