Commentary and Issues : Who knows best? Evidence-based practice and the service user contribution

This paper argues for a new emphasis on ‘knowledge-based practice’, recognizing that the practice wisdom of health and social care practitioners and the lived experience of service users can be just as valid a way of knowing the world as formal research.

Abstract

This paper reviews the assumptions underlying traditional medical research and critiques the concept of ‘evidence-based practice’. In particular, it identifies and counters three basic tenets of this approach: the alleged need for objectivity in research, the notion of hierarchies of evidence and the primacy of systematic reviews. Instead, the paper argues for a new emphasis on ‘knowledge-based practice’, recognizing that the practice wisdom of health and social care practitioners and the lived experience of service users can be just as valid a way of knowing the world as formal research.