Edinburgh Napier University

  The concept of evidence-based practice underpins contemporary health care. Throughout your programme of nursing study you will develop the skills to demonstrate the application of evidence-based nursing practice. You will learn to think critically about the theoretical literature, research and other evidence informing your understanding to help you achieve the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) competencies (2010) which are arranged within the following four domains.
•professional values;
•communication and interpersonal skills;
•nursing practice and decision-making;
•leadership, management and team working.

Throughout this book you are provided with examples of how to integrate existing evidence into your practice to illustrate and support your learning. For all aspects of nursing, there is a wealth of diverse evidence to draw on and you will become familiar with accessing and using various sources of knowledge concerning values, ethics and compassionate care; communication studies, interactional research and theory; approaches to decision-making and leadership; and management research.

Evidence-based practice is a fundamental aspect of all you do as a nurse and this chapter will support your learning and achievement of the competencies within the NMC Standards for Pre-registration Nursing Education (NMC 2010) by facilitating you to:
•understand what is meant by evidence-based practice;
•appreciate the diverse types of evidence that can be used to inform practice;
•explain the importance of evidence-based practice;
•develop the knowledge and skills you need to demonstrate evidence-based practice;
•critically consider the limitations and challenges of evidence-based practice.

This chapter specifically addresses the following NMC standards but evidence-based information underpins all the standards.