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Nursing

What is Evidence-Based Practice?

The practice of health care in which the practitioner systematically finds, appraises, and uses the most current and valid research findings as the basis for clinical decisions.  The term is sometimes used to denote evidence-based medicine specifically but can also include other specialties, such as evidence-based nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry.

Source - Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 9th ed., 2013.

PICO(T)

What is a PICO(T) 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

Note: Not every question will have an intervention (as in a meaning question) or time (when it is implied in another part of the question) component.

Recommended Databases for EBP & PICO(T)


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