Library Assist: Answers

Health students, including nurses and midwives, are often required to demonstrate their understanding of best practice principles through reference to guidelines and standards, such as those issued by NICE, the NMC, the RCN and other professional organisations.

They can be confusing to reference as the information may be just words on a web page or available as a PDF download. Helpfully, Cite Them Right (CTR) has a specific example for this type of source under the heading 'Protocols, regulations and guidelines (Harvard):

Citation order:

• Author
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title (in italics)
• Series or publication number (if given)
• Place of publication: Publisher

If accessed online:

• Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)

The key requirement here is to include the "series or publication number" if one is available. Not all items will have one, so it is acceptable to leave this part out of the reference - but look at your item carefully for anything you can put in this section before doing so. We recommend downloading items as a PDF whenever possible as this may help you to see any identifying series/publication information.

By adding this element, CTR is asking you to include any unique information on the item, such as a reference number or version number. This is important as guidelines can change or be updated over time so it is essential that you and your reader know exactly which version you have used. If the document has been updated, it is usually acceptable to use the year of the most recent update as your year of publication for referencing purposes, but if in doubt you should check with your tutor.

Examples

A NICE guideline:

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (2023) Head injury: assessment and early management. NG232. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng232 (Accessed: 6 June 2023).

A Nursing and Midwifery Council standard:

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2019) Standards of proficiency for midwives. Available at: https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/standards/standards-of-proficiency-for-midwives.pdf (Accessed: 7 June 2023).

An information sheet from a hospital: 

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (2020) Ciclosporin after bone marrow transplant. 2020F0542. Available at:  https://media.gosh.nhs.uk/documents/Ciclosporin_after_BMT_F0542_FINAL_May20_0.pdf (Accessed: 30 May 2023).