Will evidence-based nursing practice make practice perfect?
Evidence-based practice, or evidence-based decision-making, is rapidly developing as a growth industry in nursing and the health professions more widely. It has its origins in the work of the British epidemiologist Archie Cochrane and has recently been re-energized in Canada by the National Forum on Health and its call for a culture of evidence-based decision-making. Before we adopt evidence-based nursing (EBN) as a mantra for the 21st century, we should examine its origins and its consequences, and we should probe related concepts, 2 of which are the nature and structure of practice-based knowledge and the nature and structure of evidence generally. Findings of a recent survey of nurses in western Canada are used to illustrate that nurses use a broad range of practice knowledge, much of which is experientially based rather than research-based.
Estabrooks
C A
CA
Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario.
D000328:Adult; D000416:Alberta; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards*; D015399:Nursing Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires