Background: Nursing practice guidelines are important for the interdisciplinary team to give counselling and ensure effective service of comprehensive care for patients with cleft lip and cleft palate (CLP) under long term treatment.

Objective: To develop nursing practice guidelines of counselling for patients with CLP

Materials and Methods: This descriptive research was conducted in order to obtain recommended guidelines for the treatment of patients with CLP at Srinagarind Hospital by the Center for Advanced Nursing Practice Model. Research instruments included: 1) Tools for empirical data collection developed from PICO and derived from CD-ROM and online databases (PubMed, ProQuest, Science Direct, CINHAL), 2) Selection and evaluation of the reliability of research samples, 3) Evaluation, 4) Analysis, 5) Creation of empirical guidelines for nursing, and 6) A validity test conducted by experts. The process spanned six months from June to November, 2018.

Results: A total of 7,400 documents were accessible in the databases, from which 10 journals, 8 studies, and 2 academic journals were selected for this research. The synthesizing of these documents yielded three key practical guidelines for the treatment of CLP patients, namely: 1) Evaluating pregnancies for babies with complete CLP, 2) Providing suggestions to mothers reportedly carrying babies with CLP, and 3) Evaluating the guidance given to mothers and families of CLP toddlers.

Conclusion: This study developed three practical nursing guidelines for CLP patients namely: 1) Evaluating pregnancies for babies with CLP, 2) Providing suggestions to families and the mothers reportedly carrying babies with CLP, 3) Evaluating the guidance given to mothers of CLP toddlers and families. These guidelines help the nursing team to correctly provide suggestions and treatment to the patients with CLP.