Hello! I’m, John Offen, and I am a student representative for EBN.  I am currently in my second year of a three year course in Evidence Based Nursing at the University of York in England.  Having left my previous career in IT, I am finding it challenging to learn new ways of thinking to help me to tackle the people centred issues that we face daily as nurses.  When I first came across the term “evidence based nursing”, I failed to understand the importance that this ongoing revolution should and will have on the profession.  Yes, experience is paramount and care and compassion are the cornerstones of nursing, and always will be, but to inform our decisions with a properly researched evidence base, far from detracting from our core values can only enhance our practice and patient outcomes.  I feel privileged to be studying at the University of York, not only did it recently come top in a poll of UK nursing courses, but it is also home to a world class research team.  We benefit from being taught by those directly involved in current research, and learn to seek out and critically appraise the latest research evidence and to incorporate it into our practice.  Many of the beliefs I encounter whilst on placement are still based on tradition and ritual, and we have a long road ahead before evidence based nursing becomes the accepted norm.  The UK governing body for nursing, the NMC, tells us we must use the best available evidence in delivering care, but often the evidence simply does not exist, or where it does many nurses do not yet possess the skills required to access it.  As the body of available research increases, publications like EBN will be key to disseminating the best research accompanied by a commentary explaining the clinical relevance of the findings.