ANALYZING CLINICAL-PRACTICE GUIDELINES - A METHOD OF DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS

This paper will describe a method of documentary analysis used in a st udy examining the validity of clinical guidelines issued to health vis itors to assist them in identifying families requiring increased healt h visitor support, This forms the preliminary work for a wider study e xamining how health visitors decide to increase support to vulnerable families, Although a number of published research texts discuss the va lue of records and documents as important data sources for health serv ice researchers, there is relatively little information available abou t the processes of documentary analysis. This paper offers one method for analysing clinical practice guidelines, it describes the developme nt of a critique and analysis tool and explores the strengths and weak nesses of this particular analysis instrument.