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A systematic review and quality appraisal of bereavement care practice guidelines
Author(s) -
Kent Katherine,
Jessup Belinda,
Marsh Pauline,
Barnett Tony,
Ball Madeleine
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.13225
Subject(s) - cinahl , critical appraisal , context (archaeology) , medline , clarity , quality (philosophy) , guideline , scope (computer science) , systematic review , medicine , psychology , health care , cochrane library , nursing , medical education , alternative medicine , computer science , pathology , paleontology , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , epistemology , political science , psychological intervention , law , economics , biology , programming language , economic growth
Bereavement care practice guidelines assist in delivering high‐quality bereavement care. However, the quality of published guidelines is unknown. A systematic review was conducted to identify and evaluate the quality of the process used to develop bereavement care practice guidelines using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument. A keyword search was conducted in MEDLINE‐Complete, CINAHL‐Complete, Health‐Source (Nursing/Academic Edition), Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and an internet search engine in October 2017. Sixteen guidelines with differing scope and purpose but similar core values were identified from the grey literature and then appraised at high quality (n = 1), moderate quality (n = 4), or low quality (n = 11). The domains “clarity of presentation” and “scope and purpose” achieved the highest scores (mean ± SD 71.0 ± 27.6% and 64.4 ± 37.5%, respectively), while “editorial independence” showed the lowest mean score (9.2 ± 13.3%). While few of the bereavement care practice guidelines met the AGREE II quality standards related to their development process, neither the quality of the content of each guideline nor the in‐context application was assessed by the AGREE II instrument. Ongoing development of practice guidelines may benefit from consideration and application of the framework outlined in the AGREE II or similar appraisal instrument.