ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the origins and early development of the idea of evidence-based practice, followed by an examination of the various ways in which each of the three words which make up the term are used in the seminal literature. It is important to note the full title of this seminal paper: Evidence-Based Medicine A New Approach to Teaching the Practice of Medicine, and to recognise that it was not addressed primarily to practitioners of medicine but to educators. Much of the dispute focuses on the question of what counts as 'best evidence', particularly in relation to qualitative and quantitative research methods, clinical experience and other forms of nursing knowledge. The term 'nursing practice' covers a wide range of activities which often have only a family resemblance to one another and these varied activities can stand in a number of different relationships to the evidence.
