The Journal of Evidence-based Nursing Practice (JEBNP) has been created as a sister journal to the Tasman Medical Journal (TMJ) to service the contemporary nursing profession. Over the last 40-50 years nursing practice has changed from an empirically-based vocationally-acquired skill set into an academically-based profession. The graduate members of this profession now create and abide by practice guidelines based as far as possible on scientific evidence, and measure the performance of these guidelines on the health outcomes by means of continuous audit and formal research.