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Sammanfattning

The term «evidence» is discussed in Nordic nursing literature. However, the true acceptation of the word seems to be difficult to define. This article is an illumination of «evidence» in Nordic nursing. The method by Walker and Avant for concept analysis was used to illuminate the meaning of evidence in a nursing perspective. The concept analysis is performed in the light of definitions found in Nordic works of reference and Nordic nursing literature. Evidence was found to be a polysemantic concept, which depends on the context in which it is used and is strongly linked to proof. When the concept is used in the tradition of natural science, evidence is based on methods, which are measurable and where the evidence can be classified and put into a hierarchy where the research method is determined by the scientific value of the result. In the tradition of the humanities, evidence is rich on perspectives, multitudinous and depends on the context. Although evidence is not static, «evidence» in one situation can appear as «not evidence» in another. The concept of evidence in Nordic nursing is based on traditions of natural science and humanities.

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