Nursing, as an evidence-based area of practice, has been developing since the time of Florence Nightingale to the present day, where many nurses now work as researchers based in universities as well as in the health care setting.
In England and Wales, courts may determine if a nurse acted reasonably based upon whether their intervention was supported by research.
Nursing research falls largely into two areas:[citation needed] Recently in the UK, action research has become increasingly popular in nursing.
In 2008, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality AHRQ created the AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange to document and share health care quality improvement programs, including hundreds of profiles featuring nursing innovations.
[2] Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is both a goal and approach in nursing, however, there are nurse-related barriers to evidence based-practice such as limited knowledge of EBP and work overload.