Consider the nursing action or intervention you are thinking that would make a difference?  From your search for evidence, what is the evidence indicating that nurses can do to help improve the problem or issue you have chosen? Reflect upon what would be the measurable, relatable indicator that would demonstrate the intervention is making a difference or not?  What would be the needed outcome that you could observe/check/measure?

NR 439 PICOT Question Guide

The following contains PICOT question guides/templates to use to help write questions using all of the PICOT elements.  Each template contains a guide that you can use to write a complete PICOT question, examples of PICOT elements, and illustrations[i].  Review some tips and hints below to think about for each of the PICOT elements that can help create a sound clinical nursing PICOT question:

P=Population of patients:     Think about a group of patients you are interested in studying—identify the group by age ranges, diagnosis/disease of interest, history or length of time with the diagnosis/disease of interest, location, unit, or setting, gender type (if applicable), race (if applicable), or other identifiable characteristics such as Medicare, Medicaid, immobile, ventilated, inpatient, outpatient, etc.

I=Intervention:                     Consider the nursing action or intervention you are thinking that would make a difference?  From your search for evidence, what is the evidence indicating that nurses can do to help improve the problem or issue you have chosen?

C=Comparison:                     Think about comparing to the intervention of interest or the alternative such as routine/standard care.  If no comparison, state not implementing the intervention or no comparison group.

O=Outcome:                           Reflect upon what would be the measurable, relatable indicator that would demonstrate the intervention is making a difference or not?  What would be the needed outcome that you could observe/check/measure? For example, “the pain is okay” would not be a measurable outcome.  Rates pain level less than 3 on pain scale would be measurable.

T=Timeframe:           For this element, reflect on how long it would take to implement your study by collecting data or the time needed to observe to see if any changes occurred or will occur. Think about 1 month, 3 months, 6 months etc… Use a timeframe that is realistic.

[i] Adapted from Houser (2018) and the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing (AAACN). (2018). AAACN research toolkit:  Template for asking PICOT questions.