The guide to community prevention services: A community program planner's ticket to evidence based practice

The need to incorporate evidence into nursing practice has come to the forefront of nursing education and clinical practice. However, the evidence that supports health promotion programs and policy development for populations can be difficult for students and novice public health nurses to locate. The Guide to Community Preventive Services is a federally supported Web resource that provides systematic reviews of evidence that supports population focused public health programs and policies. Use of the Guide in planning community programs can simplify the process of locating evidence and increase the chances that a community program will be successful. The goal of incorporating the Guide into the requirements for a community assessment project is to select program and policy interventions that are supported by the evidence, as well as to provide a positive cost benefit for the community.