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A Critique of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: Challenging the Assumptions

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Abstract

The evidence-based practice movement has been underway in the health care sector for over two decades and is becoming an increasingly prominent approach to practice. Evidence-based practice, which generally refers to the direct application of scientific (understood as quantitative/experimental) research findings to professional practice, has arisen in nursing in response to an increasing focus on research utilization in the medical profession. There are, however, a number of powerful assumptions behind evidence-based practice in nursing that support the persistence of liberal humanist conceptions of subjectivity, marginalize nurses' ways of knowing, and perpetuate a belief in the superiority of experimental science. Feminist/post-structuralist theory offers a perspective from which to challenge these assumptions and question the appropriateness of evidence-based practice in the goals of nursing. This critique can form the foundation for nurses' resistance to dominant discourses in health care delivery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, 5-21, Tory Building, Edmonton, T6G 2H4, Alberta, Canada

    Sarah Wall

  2. International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, University of Alberta, 6-10, University Extension Centre, 8303 - 112 Street, Edmonton, T6G 2T4, Alberta, Canada

    Sarah Wall

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  1. Sarah Wall
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Correspondence to Sarah Wall.

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Wall, S. A Critique of Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: Challenging the Assumptions. Soc Theory Health 6, 37–53 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700113

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