A working group at McMaster University published an article advocating the use of research in teaching medical students and originated the phrase evidence-based medicine (Lewenson and Truglio-Londrigan, 2007). While in 1989, a British medical group, headed by Murray Enkin, published a review of the “evidence” for effective care in pregnancy and childbirth (Enkin et al. , 1989).
This landmark work helped articulate the need for other health care professionals, particularly physicians, to systematically collate best practice information from research reports and make practice decisions based on the collective results. The development and growth of computer technology, as well as the internet, has also influenced the advancement of evidence-based practice in health care settings. The ability of computers to process large databases, retain historical records, and speedily access information has led to computerized clinical charting systems.
The internet has allowed health care professionals to access up-to-date research information and clinical guidelines based on systematic literature reviews, irrespective of their location. Nurses will see nursing practice change on a regular basis as more evidence-based information is produced by nurse researcher. And this brisk move in the direction of the evidence-based practice throughout the health field is starting to come across echoes from within nursing (Dale, 2005; Lavin et al. , 2005).
However, it should be taken into account even if there have been progresses in the organization of nursing as a research-based profession, a lot of nurses come across it on a difficult manner to engage with studies and exploration in their own areas. There are several individuals who think or believe that there is uncertainty in evidence-based nursing. As such, they tend to face a dilemma whether to embrace or effectively abandon the requirements of evidence based practice (Tolson et al. , 2005).
The explanation why some administration’s guiding principles fail to capture the imagination of health professionals is that they are seen as mind-numbingly inappropriate to the realities of health provision. Hidden agendas usually become apparent once the professions have taken out the truth from the jargon. This mistrust and perceived lack of ownership of new ideas, such as evidence-based practice and clinical governance, may to some extent give details with regards to the notorious inertia with which individual nurses have conventionally adopted them.
With evidence-based nursing the dilemma becomes even more apparent. There are real dangers for nursing if it unquestioningly adopts the medical-model definition of evidence-based nursing, a problem evident in previous attempts to raise the status of the profession. On the other hand, the profession may have little choice other than to adopt evidence-based practice or risk being left behind other health professions.
This paper would stand on the belief that these dilemmas or limitations or boundaries in evidence-based nursing, which may include definitions and the endorsement of research which affects the quality of service in any health care system, are indeed present, and that to reduce these dilemmas or the misunderstandings on the proper definition of evidence-based nursing, further researches should be conducted, additional and extensive information dissemination regarding the use and implementation of evidence-based nursing should be considered and that additional funds should be sought.