Evidence informing practice: introducing the mini-review

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Abstract
The use of evidence to inform health-care practice has long been advocated. However, in practice it is often difficult and widely misunderstood (Griffiths, 1999). For example, community nurses often rely on potentially biased information from drug company sales people (Luker and Kenrick, 1992). Instead we are now urged to make use of current research-based knowledge to inform our decision-making and to critically appraise what we find (Sackett et al, 1996). For many this might be interpreted as the use of authoritative text books and review articles. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Antman and colleagues (1992) showed clearly how the recommendations of text books and even ‘scholarly’ reviews could completely misrepresent or ignore the available evidence. The practitioner then faces the often-daunting task of finding and appraising the primary research himself or herself.