ABSTRACT
This chapter defines evidence-based practice and explains the politics and ethics of evidence-based practice. ‘Ethics’ represents evidence about what is right and wrong and what is good and bad, desirable and undesirable. It is expressed through moral codes and ethical decision making. In everyday practice, clinicians often have to make choices between competing interventions. These choices and judgements may have an ethical dimension, and selection of the most appropriate position or action requires careful deliberation. Modern nurse managers are interested in evidence-based practice because they are interested in good clinical governance. But lack of management commitment may be one of the greatest barriers to nurses using research evidence. Service users in need of health care deserve an intervention that has been proven to be effective. As core members of the multidisciplinary team, mental health nurses strive to achieve this and none of them would deny that sound evidence should be an integral part of clinical decision making.
