Knowledge for Nursing Practice: Beyond Evidence Alone

For the past 30 years there has been a growing emphasis on evidence as the primary or exclusive basis for nursing practice.

Critical examination of literature related to evidence-based practice from the 1990s to the present.

This review of the nursing literature from the 1990s to the present reveals that in the midst of the movement to promote evidence-based practice as the gold standard, there have been persistent expressions of concern. These concerns are (a) lack of alignment of evidence-based practice with nursing's disciplinary perspective; (b) wrongful privileging of empirical knowledge over other sources of knowledge; (c) underappreciation of the complexity of practice and practice wisdom;(d) possibilities of evidence-based practice thwarting innovation and creativity;(e) vulnerabilities of empirical evidence to be flawed, inconsistent, and influenced by competing interests; (f) situational realities that limit access to and critical appraisal of evidence that access to and critical appraisal of evidence is not feasible or practical; and (g) lack of relationship of evidence-based practice to theory.

We call for a recalibrated practice epistemology that promotes a greater appreciation for the myriad sources of knowledge for nursing practice, and offer recommendations for international change in education, literature, scholarship, and public media.