The core principle of evidence-based practice is:

• A. Best available evidence should guide practice.
• B. Practice should be guided by tradition.
• C. Only randomized trials matter.
• D. Evidence is irrelevant to practice.

Answer: (A)

Using the best available evidence to guide practice is the core idea behind evidence-based practice. In community health nursing, this means drawing on high-quality research, systematic reviews, and trusted guidelines to inform decisions about interventions, policies, and programs, then tailoring them to the local context with clinical judgment and respect for the community’s values and needs. It isn’t about relying only on randomized trials or rigid rules; randomized studies are important, but good decisions also use other solid sources of evidence when RCTs aren’t available. Traditions or routines should not drive care if they aren’t supported by current data, and evidence should never be considered irrelevant to practice.