Health care is constantly being reformed to improve the safety and quality of services, and nurses are integral to the provision of this safety and quality. As a result of concerns raised by recent high-profile care failings, there is an expectation that the nursing profession should be able to meet the changing demands of an increasingly complex healthcare environment, based on the best available evidence. This article describes the use of systematic literature reviews to recognise appropriate evidence and develop guidelines to inform nursing practice, thereby enabling safe, high quality nursing care. It uses an example from the literature to illustrate the process of systematic review.