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PICO(T) is a mnemonic used to describe the five elements of a good clinical question.
stands for Patient, Population or Problem
Who is the patient(s) or population and what is their particular condition or healthcare problem?
stands for Intervention or Issue of Interest
What are the main interventions or exposures in my question?
stands for Comparison Intervention or Group
Does your question include a "counter intervention" or exposure, e.g., a recognized standard, or the absence of treatment or exposure?
stands for Outcome
Outcomes of interest from a clinical and patient perspective; what do you want to accomplish?
Will this intervention/exposure:
stands for Time/Type
In EBP, clinical questions are asked in PICOT format (i.e., Patient population, Intervention or Issue of Interest, Comparison intervention or group, Outcome, and Time frame) to yield the most relevant and best evidence.
Formulating Answerable Clinical Questions is the Foundation of EBP!
Every time we see a patient, we need new information about some element of the diagnosis, prognosis or management. Because our time to try to find this information is often limited, we need to be very efficient in our searching. To achieve this efficiency, we need to become skilled at formulating clinical questions.
Is your clinical question answerable?
Express your clinical question in the PICO format
The PICOT terms come from and should match your clinical question.
Two additional elements of the well-built clinical question are the type of question and the type of study. This information can be helpful in focusing the question and determining the most appropriate type of evidence or study.
For a definition on study types see the Useful Definitions Tab on the EBP Page here: http://nu.libguides.com/NSG607/acquire
Common Question Types |
Explanation |
Type of Study |
THERAPY (treatment) How to select treatments that do more good than harm and that are worth the efforts and costs of using them |
|
Randomized controlled trial, cohort study |
DIAGNOSIS How to select and interpret diagnostic tests |
|
Prospective, blind comparison to a gold standard or cross-sectional |
PROGNOSIS (forecast) How to estimate the patient’s likely clinical course over time (based on factors other than the intervention) and anticipate likely complications of disease |
|
Cohort study, case control, case series |
HARM/ETIOLOGY (causation) How to identify causes for disease (including iatrogenic forms) |
|
Cohort study, case control, case series |
Adapted from: Fineout-Overholt, E. & Johnston, L. (2005), Teaching EBP: asking searchable, answerable clinical questions. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 2, 157–160. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6787.2005.00032.x
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