Promoting evidence-based practice through anintegrated model ofcare: patient case studiesas a teaching method

How, as educationalists involved in curriculum development, the introduction of an integrated approach to teaching clinical skills may be a way forward in resolving the concerns highlighted by the recent Department of Health publications is described.

Abstract

This paper intends to encourage debate on how evidence-based practice may be achieved through developing an integrated approach to teaching clinical practice skills by using case study as a teaching method. This is achieved by examining societal, social, and political changes as well as the changes that have occurred in nurse education over the past 15 years. What evidence-based nursing is, the processes required to practice it effectively and how case study as a teaching method can support these processes are described. Finally, the paper describes how, as educationalists involved in curriculum development, the introduction of an integrated approach to teaching clinical skills may be a way forward in resolving the concerns highlighted by the recent Department of Health (DoH) publications.