Implementing medication algorithms. Role of behavioral health nurses

1. Clinical practice guidelines, also called algorithms, practice standards, protocols, and policies, are systematically refined parameters that guide decision making related to specific clinical disorders. 2. Algorithms and clinical practice guidelines were developed to provide a sequential framework for clinical decision making, improve quality of care, increase patient safety, control costs, and provide standardization of care. 3. While each format used to develop algorithms and clinical practice guidelines has advantages and disadvantages, the evidence-based format, in which an expert panel reviews evidence and designs the guidelines, which are then reviewed by practitioners and organizations in that clinical area, provides the most up-to-date and accurate guidelines. 4. As frontline caregivers in the behavioral health care system, nurses are in an ideal position to monitor patients' adherence and responses to clinical guidelines, including medication algorithms.