Lakeman, Richard (2008) The medium, the message, and evidence-based practice. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 29 (3). pp. 319-327.

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Abstract

[Extract] Marshal McLuhan, the media guru of the 1960s, famously observed "we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us" ([McLuhan, 1994], p. ix). Tools influence the way we think and behave, "we become what we behold" ([McLuhan, 1994], p. 19). We extend ourselves through the tools we use but inevitably we also lose something in the process. For example, the invention of the automobile has greatly extended our mobility but it has also changed village life and led to pollution. In medicine, an over-reliance on diagnostic tests has been blamed for a loss of basic clinical skills ([Bordage, 1995]) and in nursing, an overextension of the scientific may lead to a diminishment of the humanistic. This paper considers McLuhan's proposition that our tools shape us in relation to mental health care and the tools derived from evidence based practice (EBP).

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