BMJ  2004;329 (30 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7473.0-c

"Mindlines" are still preferred to guidelines

Doctors and nurses in general practice may still rely more on collectively reinforced, internalised, tacit guidelines ("mindlines") to guide their practice than on high quality research evidence. In an ethnographic study set in two highly regarded general practices in England over two years Gabbay and le May (p 1013) found that primary care doctors and nurses rarely accessed and used research evidence. The authors propose ways in which formal and informal professional networks could provide better evidence.

Credit: DAVE KRIEGER/PHOTONICA

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Evidence based guidelines or collectively constructed "mindlines?" Ethnographic study of knowledge management in primary care

John Gabbay and Andrée le May
BMJ 2004 329: 1013. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]