Nursing: Cultivating Curiosity/Culture of Evidence Module

What is evidence?

Evidence is information that we use to make clinical decisions. These decisions might include how to approach a patient, what elements to assess, what interventions to select or what outcomes to monitor.

There are many different forms or sources of evidence that we use in our practice, these include:

• research (academic or industry-sponsored); this may be in the form of individual studies, or synthesis of all studies on the topic
• clinical experience or expert opinion (ones own or a colleague's, narrative reviews, textbooks);
• client experience, expertise and desires;
• and data (statistics, clinical audits, etc.).

What is nursing evidence?

Nursing (research) evidence is generated by nurse researchers and clinicians. Nursing evidence typically answers questions that have an impact on nursing actions or decisions, though it may influence the decisions or understanding of other healthcare providers or the general public.

See the Ask module to learn about different types of questions and best evidence to answer them.

See the interactive evidence pyramid or use the interactive concept map to find resources by type of evidence.

See the Basic Search and Intermediate Search modules to learn how to plan a successful search.

Please note: While this guide is managed by Francesca Frati, the contents of the guide were developed in collaboration with nursing faculty at the Ingram School of Nursing: Irene Sarasua,  Argerie Tsimicalis, Jodi Tuck, Amanda Cervantes and Caroline Marchionni.