Disseminating wound care guidelines: lessons from the literature.

The multiplicity of clinical practice guidelines available to the practicing nurse poses considerable challenges in keeping up-to-date not only on their existence but also on their content and implications for practice. The aim of guidelines is to support the clinician in providing up-to-date, evidence -based patient care and to minimize the variations in such care. However, while their development represents and enormous amount of time and expertise, little attention has been given to how to disseminate them and how to implement them.