On nursing theories and evidence.
OBJECTIVE
To expand the understanding of what constitutes evidence for theory-guided, evidence-based nursing practice from a narrow focus on empirics to a more comprehensive focus on diverse patterns of knowing.


METHODS
Carper's four fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing--empirical, ethical, personal, and aesthetic--are required for nursing practice. A different mode of inquiry is required to develop knowledge about and evidence for each pattern.


CONCLUSIONS
Theory, inquiry, and evidence are inextricably linked. Each pattern of knowing can be considered a type of theory, and the modes of inquiry appropriate to the generation and testing of each type of theory provide diverse sources of data for evidence-based nursing practice. Different kinds of nursing theories provide different lenses for critiquing and interpreting the different kinds of evidence essential for theory-guided, evidence-based holistic nursing practice.
Fawcett
J
J
College of Nursing, University of Massachusetts-Boston, USA. jacqueline.fawcett@umb.edu
Watson
J
J
Neuman
B
B
Walker
P H
PH
Fitzpatrick
J J
JJ
D004954:Esthetics; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D009742:Nursing Theory; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D012586:Science