Theory focused practice: enhancing the evidence base for children’s nursing practice

Abstract

The importance of providing an evidence-base for practice for all health professionals is not disputed and in recent years this has become a requirement. However there is an on-going dialogue regarding a theory-practice gap in nursing which suggests that many nurses still do not underpin their practice with evidence to support it. Reflective practice has been seen as a panacea for this but it has been suggested that even this process does not completely close the theory-practice gap. Contemporary nursing education focuses on student-led approaches and encourages critical reading and the application of research findings and other evidence to clinical practice. However, it may be argued that student and novice nurses have difficulty in both finding evidence and then applying it to their every day practice. Indeed it has been suggested that these groups are much more likely to look to their more experienced peers for advice than to actively search out evidence for themselves. This paper sets the scene for an innovative teaching method, the aim of which is to encourage students to seek out the evidence for practice and provide them with the skills to challenge poor practice whenever they meet it. The method has its roots in the concepts of experiential learning and problem-based learning and these concepts are explored along with those of evidence-based practice and the theory-practice gap. A small survey of lecturers in children’s nursing across the UK is reported. This suggests that while a theory-practice gap is not conclusively acknowledged there are still some students and novice nurses who do not use evidence to support their practice or may need prompting to do so. Theory focused practice (TFP) is promoted as an innovative teaching method which may help to mitigate these problems.