What are some examples of P ?
What are some examples of I ?
What are some examples of C ?
What are some examples of O ?
Using the example from the bottom-center we can start forming a research question:
Is Chlorpropamide (intevention) more efficient than Metformin (comparator) in managing Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 (problem) for obese elderly patients (population)?
*Note: It is not necessary to use every element in PICO or to have both a problem and population in your question. PICO is a tool that helps researchers frame an answerable EBP question.
Synonyms can very helpful throughout your investigative and research process. Using synonyms with boolean operators can potentially expand your search. Databases with subject headings or controlled vocabularies like MeSH in PubMed often have a thesaurus that can match you with appropriate terms.
Elderly | Geriatrics, Aged |
Heart Attack | Myocardial Infarction |
Boolean operators allow you to manipulate your search.
Use AND to narrow your search
eg. elderly AND diabetes
Use OR to broaden your search
eg. myocardial infarction OR heart attack
Use NOT to exclude terms from your search
eg. children NOT infants
In order to most appropriately choose an information resource and craft a search strategy, it is necessary to consider what kind of question you are asking: a specific, narrow "foreground" question, or a broader background question that will help give context to your research?
A "foreground" question in health research is one that is relatively specific, and is usually best addressed by locating primary research evidence.
Using a structured question framework can help you clearly define the concepts or variables that make up the specific research question.
Across most frameworks, you’ll often be considering:
PICO is the most common framework for developing a clinical research question, but multiple question frameworks exist.
Appropriate for : clinical questions, often addressing the effect of an intervention/therapy/treatment
Example : For adolescents with type II diabetes (P) does the use of telehealth consultations (I) compared to in-person consultations (C) improve blood sugar control (O)?
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
opulation / problem | Who is the group of people being studied? | adolescents with T2D |
ntervention | What is the intervention being investigated? (independent variable) | telehealth consultations |
omparison | To what is the intervention being compared? | in person consultations |
utcome | What are the desired outcomes of the intervention? (dependent variable) | blood sugar control |
Different types of clinical questions are suited to different syntaxes and phrasings, but all will clearly define the PICO elements. The definitions and frames below may be helpful for organizing your question:
Intervention/Therapy
Questions addressing how a clinical issue, illness, or disability is treated.
"In__________________(P), how does__________________(I) compared to_________________(C) affect______________(O)?"
Questions that address the causes or origin of disease, the factors which produce or predispose toward a certain disease or disorder.
"Are_________________(P), who have_________________(I) compared with those without_________________(C) at_________________risk for/of_________________(O) over_________________(T)?"
Questions addressing the act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation.
In_________________(P) are/is_________________(I) compared with_________________(C) more accurate in diagnosing_________________(O)?
Prognosis/Prediction:
Questions addressing the prediction of the course of a disease.
In_________________(P), how does_________________(I) compared to_________________ (C) influence_________________(O)?
Questions addressing how one experiences a phenomenon or why we need to approach practice differently.
"How do_________________(P) with_________________(I) perceive_________________(O)?"
Adapted from: Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
PICO is a useful framework for clinical research questions, but may not be appropriate for all kinds of reviews. Also consider:
Appropriate for : describing association between particular exposures/risk factors and outcomes
Example : How do preparation programs (E) influence the development of teaching competence (O) among novice nurse educators (P)?
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
opulation | Who is the group of people being studied? | novice nurse educators |
xposure | What is the population being exposed to (independent variable)? | preparation programs |
utcome | What is the outcome that may be affected by the exposure (dependent variable)? | teaching competence |
Appropriate for : questions of experience or perspectives (questions that may be addressed by qualitative or mixed methods research)
Example : What are the experiences and perspectives (E) of undergraduate nursing students (S) in clinical placements within prison healthcare settings (PI)?
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
ample | Who is the group of people being studied? | undergraduate nursing students |
henomenon of nterest | What are the reasons for behavior and decisions? | clinical placements in prison healthcare settings |
esign | How has the research been collected (e.g., interview, survey)? | interview and surveys |
valuation | What is the outcome being impacted? | attitudes, experiences and reflections on learning |
esearch type | What type of research? | qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods |
Appropriate for : evaluating the outcomes of a service, project, or intervention
Example : What are the impacts and best practices for workplace (S) transition support programs (I) for the retention (E) of newly-hired, new graduate nurses (P)?
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
etting | What is the context for the question? (Where?) | nursing workplaces (healthcare settings) |
erspective | For whom is this intervention/program/service designed (users, potential users, stakeholders)? | new graduate nurses |
ntervention/Interest/Exposure | What action is taken for the users, potential users, or stakeholders? | long term transition support programs (residency/mentorship) |
omparison | What are the alternative interventions? | no or limited transition support / orientation |
valuation | What is the results of the intervention or service/how is success measured? | retention of newly hired nurses |
Appropriate for : broader (scoping) questions
Example : How do nursing schools (Context) teach, measure, and maintain nursing students ' (P) technological literacy (Concept))throughout their educational programs?
Element | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
What are the important characteristics of the participants, or the problem of focus? | nursing students | |
oncept | What is the core concept being examined by the review? | technological literacy |
ontext | What is the context for the question? (Could include geographic location, or details about the setting of interest)? | nursing schools |
To craft a strong and reasonable foreground research question, it is important to have a firm understanding of the concepts of interest. As such, it is often necessary to ask background questions, which ask for more general, foundational knowledge about a disorder, disease, patient population, policy issue, etc.
For example, consider the PICO question outlined above:
"For adolescents with type II diabetes does the use of telehealth consultations compared to in-person consultations improve blood sugar control ?
To best make sense of the literature that might address this PICO question, you would also need a deep understanding of background questions like:
For an intervention/therapy:
In _______(P), what is the effect of _______(I) on ______(O) compared with _______(C) within ________ (T)?
For etiology:
Are ____ (P) who have _______ (I) at ___ (increased/decreased) risk for/of_______ (O) compared with ______ (P) with/without ______ (C) over _____ (T)?
Diagnosis or diagnostic test:
Are (is) _________ (I) more accurate in diagnosing ________ (P) compared with ______ (C) for _______ (O)?
Prevention:
For ________ (P) does the use of ______ (I) reduce the future risk of ________ (O) compared with _________ (C)?
Prognosis/Predictions
Does __________ (I) influence ________ (O) in patients who have _______ (P) over ______ (T)?
How do ________ (P) diagnosed with _______ (I) perceive ______ (O) during _____ (T)?
Based on Melnyk B., & Fineout-Overholt E. (2010). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins .
PICO (alternately known as PICOT ) is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a good clinical question. It stands for:
P --Patient/Problem I --Intervention C --Comparison O --Outcome
Many people find that it helps them clarify their question, which in turn makes it easier to find an answer.
Use PICO to generate terms - these you'll use in your literature search for the current best evidence. Once you have your PICO terms, you can then use them to re-write your question. (Note, you can do this in reverse order if that works for you.)
Often we start with a vague question such as, "How effective is CPR, really?" But, what do we mean by CPR? And how do we define effective? PICO is a technique to help us - or force us - to answer these questions. Note that you may not end up with a description for each element of PICO.
P - our question above doesn't address a specific problem other than the assumption of a person who is not breathing. So, ask yourself questions such as, am I interested in a specific age cohort? (Adults, children, aged); a specific population (hospitalized, community dwelling); health cohort (healthy, diabetic, etc.)
I - our question above doesn't have a stated intervention, but we might have one in mind such as 'hands-only'
C - Is there another method of CPR that we want to compare the hands-only to? Many research studies do not go head to head with a comparison. In this example we might want to compare to the standard, hands plus breathing
O - Again, we need to ask, what do we mean by 'effective'? Mortality is one option with the benefit that it's easily measured.
Our PICO statement would look like:
From our PICO, we can write up a clearer and more specific question, such as:
In community dwelling adults, how effective is hands-only CPR versus hands plus breathing CPR at preventing mortality?
More information on formulating PICO questions
Now that we've clarified what we want to know, it will be much easier to find an answer.
We can use our PICO statement to list terms to search on. Under each letter, we'll list all the possible terms we might use in our search.
P - Community Dwelling: It is much easier to search on 'hospitalized' than non-hospitalized subjects. So I would leave these terms for last. It might turn out that I don't need to use them as my other terms from the I, C, or O of PICO might be enough.
community dwelling OR out-of-hospital
P - adults: I would use the limits in MEDLINE or CINAHL for All Adults. Could also consider the following depending upon the population you need:
adult OR adults OR aged OR elderly OR young adult
CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation
I - Hands-only
hands-only OR compression-only OR chest compression OR compression OR Heart Massage
C - Hands plus breathing Breathing is a tougher term to match.
breathing OR mouth to mouth OR conventional OR traditional
O - Mortality: If your outcomes terms are general, they may not as useful in the literature search. They will still be useful in your evaluation of the studies.
mortality OR death OR Survival
Putting it together - a search statement from the above might look like this:
cardiopulmonary resuscitation AND (hands-only OR compression-only OR chest compression OR compression OR Heart Massage) AND (breathing OR mouth to mouth OR conventional OR traditional)
Note that the above strategy is only using terms from the I and the C of PICO. Depending upon the results, you may need to narrow your search by adding in terms from the P or the O.
An easy way to keep track of your search strategy is to use a table. This keeps the different parts of your PICO question and their various keywords and subject terms together. This document shows you how to use the tables and provides a few options to organize your table. Use whichever works best for you! Search Strategy Tables to Break your PICO into Concepts .
A qualitative PICO question focuses on in-depth perspectives and experiences. It does not try to solve a problem by analyzing numbers, but rather to enrich understanding through words. Therefore, the emphasis in qualitative PICO questions is on fully representing the information gathered, rather than primarily emphasizing ways the information can be broken down and expressed through measurable units (though measurability can also play an important role).
A strength of a qualitative PICO question is that it can investigate what patient satisfaction looks like, for example, instead of only reporting that 25% of patients who took a survey reported that they are satisfied.
When working with qualitative questions, an alternative to using PICO in searching for sources is the SPIDER search tool. SPIDER is an acronym that breaks down like this:
P=Phenomena of Interest
E=Evaluation
R=Research Type
Cooke, A., Smith, D., & Booth, A. (2012). Beyond PICO: The SPIDER tool for qualitative evidence synthesis . Qualitative Health Research, 22 (10), 1435-1443. doi:10.1177/1049732312452938
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Welcome to your nursing test bank and practice questions for nursing research.. Nursing Research Test Bank. Nursing research has a great significance on the contemporary and future professional nursing practice, thus rendering it an essential component of the educational process.Research is typically not among the traditional responsibilities of an entry-level nurse.
A. Research provides the nurse with evidence-based knowledge needed to make sound clinical decisions. B. It only takes once small study to change nursing practice dramatically. C. Traditional nursing care is no longer appropriate for twenty-first century nursing. D.
A good PICOT question possesses the following qualities: A clinical-based question addresses the nursing research areas or topics. It is specific, concise, and clear. Patient, problem, or population. Intervention. Comparison. Outcome. Includes medical, clinical, and nursing terms where necessary. It is not ambiguous.
Pediatric Nursing Research Topics. Assess the impact of parental involvement in pediatric asthma treatment adherence. Explore challenges related to chronic illness management in pediatric patients. Review the role of play therapy and other therapeutic interventions that alleviate anxiety among hospitalized children.
Translation of research into practice (TRIP) is: A priority of all healthcare practitioners to improve patient care. Number the steps of evidence-based projects in the order that they occur: 1. assessment, 2. ask 3. acquire 4. appraise 5. apply 6. analyze and adjust.
Our nursing test bank includes over 6,500 nursing practice questions covering a wide range of nursing topics from medical- surgical nursing to nursing pharmacology and more! These test banks are absolutely free and no registration is required! Answer all of our mock exams to help you prepare and review for any nursing school exams (including ...
Nursing Research NCLEX Practice Quiz #4 (10 Questions) All questions are shown, but the results will only be given after you've finished the quiz. You are given 1 minute per question, a total of 10 minutes in this quiz. Questions: 10 | Attempts: 5661 | Last updated: Jun 10, 2024. Sample Question.
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like 1. Which of the following is an example of nursing research? a. A nursing student writes a paper on diabetes for a health course. b. A patient looks up a medication on the internet before agreeing to take it. c. A nurse washes his hands before performing wound care. d. Operating room nurses track surgical suite door openings and ...
Nursing Research Questions. 1. Nursing Research can be classified according to the time frame the research study has been made. As a nurse, you know that the study entitled "Knowledge and practice of Staff Nurses in preventing needle prick injuries in a private hospital in Manila is classified as: A. Basic Research. B. Historical Research.
Health information found online may not be fact- or evidence-based. There's a lot more to nursing research than Googling! This guide will help you improve your nursing research skills by helping you: develop a focused research question; search nursing and allied health databases for articles, reports and other publications to gather evidence
FULL-TEXT: Nursing Prioritization, Delegation and Assignment NCLEX Practice (100 Questions) This is the full-text copy of the 100-item quiz Select All That Apply NCLEX Practice Questions. Use this page to print a copy of the quiz or export it via PDF. Full-text copies of our nursing test bank questions.
Check out our informative designed to help you practice for all the Nursing Research exams. The main focus of this nursing research MCQs with answers quiz is to recall everything you have studied during the course. It is true that doctors are the significant priority people in the health profession, but nurses are not the less, as the doctors cannot work without them. The quiz below will test ...
A practice‐based nursing research model was developed with the intent to advance nursing research in a clinical setting. ... The MCNR model can be used by nurse scientists embedded in healthcare settings to address clinically relevant questions and ultimately improve the overall physical, mental, spiritual, social and role functioning of ...
This Nursing Research NCLEX Practice Quiz covers a range of essential topics related to the field of nursing research. With carefully crafted questions and multiple-choice options, you'll have the opportunity to test your knowledge and apply key concepts in a structured and interactive manner. By engaging in this quiz, you will gain familiarity ...
Nursing Research Test Bank (20 Questions) - Nurseslabs - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.
Examples of some general health services research questions are: Does the organization of renal transplant nurse coordinators' responsibilities influence live donor rates? What activities of nurse managers are associated with nurse turnover? 30 day readmission rates? What effect does the Nurse Faculty Loan program have on the nurse researcher ...
Evidence-based practice is now widely recognized as the key to improving healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Although the purposes of nursing research (conducting research to generate new knowledge) and evidence-based nursing practice (utilizing best evidence as basis of nursing practice) seem quite different, an increasing number of research studies have been conducted with the goal of ...
Step Five: Create a search for your topic in an appropriate database. After meeting with your librarian, you should have a good idea of what terms you might use and where you can search for your topic. Do a couple of searches to find the best results and mark the papers you want to keep by grabbing the permalink, citation, or by emailing it to ...
EBP Benefits: •Patient outcomes are better when used as basis for practice. •Nursing care becomes more efficient. •Errors in decision-making are decreased. •Consumers want to make informed decisions. Qualitative research: Study: "What it is like to..." Social settings, interactions, and processes.
These types of questions typically ask who, what, where, when, how & why about things like a disorder, test, or treatment, etc. Background questions are best answered by medical textbooks, which are available from platforms such as AccessMedicine and ClinicalKey Nursing. Foreground questions ask for specific knowledge to inform clinical ...
There are many elements to developing a good clinical question. Clinical questions can be further divided into two major areas: Background Questions and Foreground Questions. Background Questions refer to general knowledge and facts. The majority of the information that can be used to inform answers to background questions are found in reference resources like Encyclopedias, Dictionaries ...
PICO is the most common framework for developing a clinical research question, but multiple question frameworks exist. PICO (Problem/Population, Intervention, ... B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Beyond ...
PICO (alternately known as PICOT) is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a good clinical question. It stands for: P--Patient/Problem I--Intervention C--Comparison O--Outcome. Many people find that it helps them clarify their question, which in turn makes it easier to find an answer. Use PICO to generate terms - these you'll use in your literature search for the current best ...
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like 1 Why should the registered nurse practicing nursing at the bedside be concerned about research for the delivery of quality nursing care? A. Research provides the nurse with the knowledge needed to make sound clinical decisions. B. One study can change nursing practice dramatically. C. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of ...
It requires formulating the right question to ask, turning that question into a good search, knowing the best place to look, finding what is available, appraising the results, and then using the evidence you find to care for your patient population. Use the "5 A's" as a step-by-step guide to locate best evidence. Assess: Identify the health ...