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Application Practice

Application Practice Write a PICOTS Question after each scenario

What is a PICOT Question?

The PICOT question format is a consistent “formula” for developing answerable, researchable questions. When you write a good one, it makes the rest of the process of finding and evaluating evidence much more straightforward.

  • P: Population/patient – age, gender, ethnicity, individuals with a certain disorder
  • I: Intervention/indicator (Variable of Interest) – exposure to a disease, risk behavior, prognostic factor
  • C: Comparison/control – could be a placebo or “business as usual” as in no disease, absence of risk factor, Prognostic factor B
  • O: Outcome – risk of disease, accuracy of a diagnosis, rate of occurrence of adverse outcome
  • T: Time – the time it takes for the intervention to achieve an outcome or how long participants are observed
  1. A 45-year-old man with a family history of hypertension but who is not obese asks you whether daily brisk walks of one mile would help reduce his moderately elevated blood pressure. You are not certain and decide to look for research evidence about this issue. How would you put this into PICOTS format to focus your search?
  2. You work in a clinic providing care to adults who are HIV positive. At a staff meeting, the director points out that about 25% of the clinic’s patients develop renal dysfunction. The group decides to develop a clinical protocol for monitoring and preventing renal dysfunction. You and another nurse are assigned to report whether there are any general health and disease prevention actions that should be recommended to patients. How would you put this issue into PICOTS format?
  3. You are working in a visiting nurses association and a woman who is receiving outpatient chemotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia says that she doesn’t like the side effects she experiences with the drug she is taking to control nausea. She has heard that taking ginger can reduce side effects and wants to know what you think about that. You ask your supervisor but she isn’t sure either, but says that several other nurses have asked her about it. She raises the issue in staff meeting and the decision is made to develop an informational sheet for patient considering taking to control nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. You and another nurse volunteer to look at the research evidence and develop a protocol draft. Put this clinical question in PICOTS format so you could look for research evidence about it to use as a basis for the information sheet.
  4. You are asked to speak to a group of healthy seniors living in an assisted-living residence about health promotion. You want to present accurate information about how to receive the shingles (Zoster) vaccine. How would you PICOTS this question (to create a verb) so you can locate research-based information about it?
  5. Create your clinical practice problem PICOT for this class.