Barriers to the use of paediatric clinical practice guidelines in rural and regional New South Wales Australia

Abstract

Objective: To identify barriers to compliance with paediatric clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in emergency departments in rural and regional New South Wales (NSW), Australia, and to propose strategies to increase their use.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Ten emergency departments in rural and regional NSW.

Participants: Fifty medical officers.

Main outcome measures: Use of clinical practice guidelines and perceived barriers to their usage.

Results: Only 22% of medical officers reported that they used the CPGs frequently when managing sick children. Major barriers to the use of CPGs were a lack of awareness of their existence, a lack of training in their use and poor access to the guidelines in printed or electronic format.

Conclusion: In order to increase compliance with the paediatric CPGs, medical officers in rural and regional NSW require further training and education. The CPGs need to be readily available in either printed or electronic format.

Keywords: clinical practice guideline; compliance; emergency department; medical officer; rural NSW.