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Best practice: What it is and what it is not
Author(s) -
Smith Colleen,
Sutton Frances
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-172x.1999.00154.x
Subject(s) - limiting , best practice , perspective (graphical) , health care , nursing , quality (philosophy) , health care delivery , medicine , sociology , public relations , political science , computer science , epistemology , engineering , mechanical engineering , philosophy , artificial intelligence , law
This paper offers a poststructural critique of the concept of best practice and suggests that those practising best practice seek to reinforce modernist notions of health care and health‐care delivery. Modernist notions limit possibilities for health‐care workers, including nurses, as well as limiting the care delivered to clients. In turn, these mask various outcomes for clients and health‐care workers. This paper explores the concept of best practice and the discourse on which it is based and offers an alternative perspective on which high quality health‐care services can be developed.