ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the research methods and the hierarchy of evidence, presenting evidence-based practice (EBP) in a manner that largely ignores non-research forms of evidence. It explores the implications of this focus on research evidence, particularly in nursing education, for its impact on the understanding of EBP that nurses develop through their education and the care they subsequently offer. EBP incorporates other forms of knowledge, including patient preferences, and clinical expertise, and the chapter explores all the different forms of evidence inherent within EBP, and particularly those non-research evidence components. It compares all the forms of evidence inherent in the EBP process and reviews how the limitations in curriculum time devoted to EBP and shows how an over-emphasis on research or discovery based evidence in EBP impacts the level of scientific literacy that can be realistically expected of students in contemporary nursing programs.
