Evidence-Based Practice / Unit 24 EBP 3471 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Practising Under the Four Principles
The idea
The technique: hold all four principles at once rather than the convenient one; treat the research, improvement or practice label as deciding which review applies and never whether the people involved are owed anything; obtain consent that is genuinely informed; keep what was promised; and audit whether it was kept rather than assuming it.
In practice
A practice change taken through to the bedside. The evidence weighed for benefit and for harm, which is beneficence and nonmaleficence taken together rather than one balanced against convenience. The patient's decision treated as binding, because autonomy makes preferences more than advisory. The resource implications considered for everyone else who needs it, which is the principle the other three do not reach. The project's label settled honestly — research, improvement, or practice — so the right review applies, with the people in it owed the same care whichever it is. Consent obtained by people who understood what was asked. The change delivered as described, and audited afterwards to establish that it was, since fidelity assumed is fidelity unverified.
Where people slip
Hold all four together. Each principle can be satisfied alone by an action that offends another, and the difficulty of the judgement is the reason the chapter names four rather than one.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
- 3454Four Principles
- 3455Beneficence
- 3456Nonmaleficence
- 3457Autonomy
- 3458Justice
- 3460The Same Principles Across All Three
- 3461The Label Governs the Process, Not the Duty
- 3462Not Using Evidence Is an Ethical Matter
- 3465Informed Consent
- 3466Fidelity
- 3467Audit
- 3469Misconception: Following the Evidence Settles the Ethics
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