Implementing new clinical guidelines: the manager as agent of change

THIS ARTICLE aims to demonstrate how an increased knowledge of management issues can help improve health care. It focuses on change management, specifically the manager's role in implementing new clinical guidelines on sedation in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. An action plan sets out the key stages of the change management process involved in implementing new guidelines (Box 1). There follows a critical analysis of the managerial issues involved in this action plan with a focus on the manager as a change agent.