PICOT Question and Evidence Based Practice Assessment Answers

Subject Name : Nursing

PICOT Question and Evidence-Based Practice

PICOT Question

PICOT is a framework used by researchers to formulate a structured question for research. According to Riva, Malik, Burnie, Endicott, and Busse (2012), this format facilitates summarization of research questions that can be used for exploring the impact of a proposed therapy. A well-constructed PICOT question is helpful in finding the best available evidence for research (Echevarria & Walker, 2014).

PICOT is an acronym that stands for:

(P) Population – Refers to the subject of the study to be recruited for the research (Riva et al., 2012). Defining a population helps in generalizing findings to patients in actual clinical practice. Population can be selected based on age, complication, geography, demographics, or other specific characteristics (NAU, 2019).
(I) Intervention – Refers to the specific treatment applied to the selected population, including therapy, diagnostic test, or management strategy (Riva et al., 2012; NAU, 2019).
(C) Comparison – Signifies the comparison of the impacts of treatment between the control group and the treatment group to determine the intervention’s effectiveness (Riva et al., 2012; NAU, 2019).
(O) Outcome – Refers to the consequences or impact of the proposed intervention on the selected population (Riva et al., 2012).
(T) Time frame – Describes the timeframe in which the study will be completed and conclusions derived (Riva et al., 2012).

PICOT Question Example

Question: What are the impacts of music therapy on relieving pain in post-operative patients compared to other pharmacological interventions?

Component	Description
Population	Post-operative patients
Intervention	Music therapy
Comparison	Other pharmacological intervention
Outcome	Pain relief

Table 1: PICOT Question

Evidence-Based Practice

Question 2: Database Selection

Databases are used to retrieve credible evidence to support the PICOT question (Hartzell, Fineout-Overholt, Hoftetter, & Ponder, 2015). The two databases selected for this PICOT question include:

CINAHL
Medline

Question 3: Article Selection

Relevant articles are selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, PRISMA, Boolean operators, and specific keywords related to the PICOT question.

Inclusion criteria define characteristics that must be present in articles to be included in the research (Porzsolt, Wiedemann, Becker & Rhoads, 2018).
Exclusion criteria define characteristics that disqualify articles as irrelevant (Porzsolt et al., 2018).

Boolean operators are words used to connect search terms systematically. They reduce irrelevant results by filtering articles where keywords appear in unrelated contexts (Prince Georges Community College, 2018). Common Boolean operators include AND, OR, NOT.

Keywords are critical for retrieving evidence. Using simple keywords helps identify desired articles from large databases efficiently (Siddiqi & Sharan, 2015).

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) is used for selecting relevant information sources for research. It reduces duplication and effort when collecting evidence to support the PICOT question (Moher et al., 2015).

Search Strategy

Database Selected: CINAHL

Inclusion Criteria:

Articles published in English
Studies analyzing the impact of music therapy on pain relief
Articles published after 2010
Studies applying music therapy to post-operative patients

Exclusion Criteria:

Articles not in English
Studies not analyzing music therapy impacts
Articles published before 2010
Case studies or studies not conducted on post-operative patients

Boolean Operators

AND
OR
NOT

Combination of Keywords:

Pain management AND music therapy
Music therapy AND postoperative pain management
Post-anesthesia care unit AND music therapy
Music therapy OR pharmacological intervention
Non-pharmacological intervention OR pharmacological intervention
Post-anesthesia care unit AND pain management
Music therapy NOT medicinal therapy

PRISMA Flow Chart

Additional records identified through other sources: n = 10
Records identified through CINAHL and Medline: n = 100

Identification:

Records after duplicates removed: n = 70

Screening:

Records screened: n = 70

Eligibility:

Records excluded: n = 40
Full-text articles assessed for eligibility: n = 30
Full-text articles excluded: n = 24

Included:

Studies included in qualitative analysis: n = 6

References

Echevarria, I. M., & Walker, S. (2014). To make your case, start with a PICOT question. Nursing, 44(2), 18-19.
Hartzell, T. A., Fineout-Overholt, E., Hoftetter, S., & Ponder, E. (2015). Finding relevant evidence to answer clinical questions. Netherlands: Wolters Kluwer (3rd edition).
Moher, D., Shamseer, L., Clarke, M., Ghersi, D., Liberati, A., Petticrew, M., ... & Stewart, L. A. (2015). Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015 statement. Systematic Reviews, 4(1), 1.
NAU. (2019). Evidence based practice. Retrieved from https://libraryguides.nau.edu/c.php?g=665927&p=4682772
Porzsolt, F., Wiedemann, F., Becker, S. I., & Rhoads, C. J. (2018). Inclusion and exclusion criteria and the problem of describing homogeneity of study populations in clinical trials. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 1-3.
Prince Georges Community College. (2018). Library & learning resources. Retrieved from https://pgcc.libguides.com/c.php?g=665887&p=4683227
Riva, J. J., Malik, K. M., Burnie, S. J., Endicott, A. R., & Busse, J. W. (2012). What is your research question? An introduction to the PICOT format for clinicians. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 56(3), 167.
Siddiqi, S., & Sharan, A. (2015). Keyword and keyphrase extraction techniques: A literature review. International Journal of Computer Applications, 109(2).