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Multiple guidelines on cutaneous melanoma (CM) are available from several consortia and countries. To provide up-to-date guidance in the rapidly changing field of melanoma treatment, guideline developers have to provide regular updates without compromises of quality. We performed a systematic search in guideline databases, Medline and Embase to identify guidelines on CM. The methodological quality of the identified guidelines was independently assessed by five reviewers using the instruments "Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation" (AGREE II) and "Recommendation EXcellence" (AGREE-REX). We performed descriptive analysis, explored subgroup differences using the Kruskal–Wallis (H) test and examined the relationship between distinct domains and items of the instruments with Spearman's correlation. Six guidelines by consortia from Australia, France, Germany, Scotland, Spain and the United States of America were included. The German guideline fulfilled 71%–98% of criteria in AGREE II and 78%–96% for AGREE-REX, obtaining the highest scores. Deficiencies in the domains of "applicability" and "values and preferences" were observed in all guidelines. The German and Spanish guidelines significantly differed from each other in most of the domains. The domains "applicability" and "values and preferences" were identified as methodological weaknesses requiring careful revision and improvement in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Throughout many countries, professional bodies rely on yearly self-assessment of competence for ongoing registration; therefore, nursing competence is pivotal to safe clinical practice. Our aim was to describe and compare perioperative nurses’ perceptions of competence in four countries, while examining the effect of specialist education and years of experience in the operating room. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional surveys from four countries including; Australia, Canada, Scotland, and Sweden. The 40-item Perceived Perioperative Competence Scale-Revised (PPCS-R), was used with a total sample of 768 respondents. We used a factorial design to examine the influence of country, years of experience in the operating room and specialist education on nurses’ reported perceived perioperative competence. Results: Regardless of country origin, nurses with specialist qualifications reported higher perceived perioperative competence when compared to nurses without specialist education. However, cross-country differences were dependent on nurses’ number of years of experience in the operating room. Nurses from Sweden with 6–10 years of experience in the operating room reported lower perceived perioperative competence when compared to Australian nurses. In comparing nurses with > 10 years of experience, Swedish nurses reported significantly lower perceived perioperative competence when compared to nurses from Australia, Canada and Scotland. Conclusion: Researchers need to consider educational level and years of experience in the perioperative context when examining constructs such as competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]