Evidence Based Nursing

During the brief time that we have been engaged in developing Evidence-Based Nursing we have been fascinated by the reactions of friends, professional colleagues, and the media. The overwhelming majority of responses to the concepts of evidence-based nursing and the creation of this journal have been positive. But there have also been misgivings, sometimes generated by misunderstandings. This editorial addresses the following criticisms which we have encountered in person and in print: (1) evidence-based practice isn’t new: it’s what we have been doing for years,(2) evidence-based nursing leads to “cookbook” nursing and a disregard for individualised patient care and, (3) there is an over-emphasis on randomised controlled trials and systematic

We intend the paper to generate, rather than close the debate!
Evidence-based practice isn’t new; it’s what we have been doing for years
The plea that “each nurse must care enough about her own practice to want to make sure it is based on the best possible information” is not new. It was written more than 15 years ago. In the same article, Hunt noted that the phrase

This struggle is not unique to nursing but common to all health professions, including medicine. Challenged to address this important issue, an international commitment to evidence-based health care has resulted in a number of initiatives to improve access to research findings such as the
Cochrane Collaboration, the Evidence-Based Medicine
Working Group, critical appraisal skills teaching programmes, centres for evidence-based practice, research utilisation conferences, and evidence-based journals.
Evidence-based nursing leads to “cookbook” nursing and a disregard for individualised patient care In practising evidence-based nursing, a nurse has to decide whether the evidence is relevant for the particular patient.
The incorporation of clinical expertise should be balanced with the risks and benefits of alternative treatments for