Nursing Literature Reviews - A Reflection

Literature reviews – that is the locating and appraising of relevant research – are a common tool underpinning evidence-based practice in nursing. This challenging book unpicks the thinking behind them, arguing that the approach is beset with significant problems that are seldom recognised. Positing that nurses often ask ‘unanswerable’ questions – whether they are metaphysical, ethical, or sociological – and identifying difficulties that both quantitative and qualitative research pose for nurses, the book explores exactly why literature reviews are so much trickier than they appear before outlining a possible way forward. It is an important contribution to the EBP debate.