PICO is a framework that helps the nurses provide the answers to some of the crucial questions in the field of healthcare. As far as nurses’ practice is concerned, PICO makes it easy to formulate clear and concise questions. This makes it easier to search for and also to find good research as most of the documents are usually required to be gated.
PICO is especially important in nursing decisions that can greatly affect the patient’s wellbeing; by applying PICO we can be sure that the best documented care is being given. Such an approach is part of a systematic approach known as evidence-based practice that assists nurses to deliver appropriate care to the patients.
Understanding the Components of PICO
The elements of this framework are useful to help nurses concentrate on certain aspects when constructing a question.
- P – Patient/Population/Problem
The part involves the patient or more specifically the group of patients that concerns you. It can also involve the health problem of interest; this is particularly important when the health problem is the sole variable you are interested in studying for purposes of comparison with other health problems.
- I – Intervention
Intervention is the treatment, procedure or action contemplated to be taken with regard to the patient. This can be a new drug, a particular form of practice, or modification in the delivery of the care.
- C – Comparison
The referent is what you want to use the comparison in regard to intervening the comparison against. It might be another treatment, no treatment at all, or a different approach of how to treat the patient.
- O – Outcome
The outcome is the expected or the variable into which an improvement, change or a record will be made following the intervention. And this could be things like lower pain, faster healing, or simply better quality of life of the patient.
PICO Question Examples
By using the PICO elements, focused questions can be developed that are valuable in research and increasing the quality of care as it relates to nursing practice in manifold settings.
Cardiology
- Problem: High risk patients more so, the adult patients with high blood pressure
- Intervention: Daily exercise
- Comparison: No exercise
- Outcome: Lowering of blood pressure
- PICO Question: Does exercise in adults with high blood pressure lower blood pressure when done daily than when not at all?
ICU (Intensive Care Unit)
- Problem: Mechanical ventilation in patients in intensive care units
- Intervention: Daily sedation interruption
- Comparison: Continuous sedation
- Outcome: The second patient characteristic is the duration of mechanical ventilation where the patient has a shorter time.
- PICO Question: Does interrupting sedation applied to ICU patients on mechanical ventilation offer a possibility of outcome that is better than that given with constant sedation therapy?
Infection Control
- Problem: Health care personnel throughout the flu season
- Intervention: Wearing surgical masks
- Comparison: Not wearing masks
- Outcome: Reduced flu transmission
- PICO Question: Hospital staff; During the flu season does the use of surgical masks lower the rate of transmission of flu compared to a scenario where no masks are used?
Labor & Delivery
- Problem: First-time mothers in labor
- Intervention: Epidural anesthesia
- Comparison: No epidural
- Outcome: Reduction of pain and childbirth experience satisfaction
- PICO Question: In the first-time mothers in labor: does epidural anesthesia improve the experience of pain and perceived satisfaction with childbirth than no epidural?
NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)
- Problem: The behavior of preterm infants admitted to the NICU
- Intervention: To at least an average extent, the following practices were observed: kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact).
- Comparison: Incubator care only
- Outcome: Increased weight- gain and affection Centre of maternal bonding and weight gain
- PICO Question: In premature infants admitted in the NICU, does KMC enhance weight gain and attachment as compared to only incubator care?
Formulating a PICO Question
Developing a PICO question is a systematic approach of coming up with questions when developing an understanding of nursing.
- Identify the Problem
What type of health problem do you wish to research? For instance, one can have a specific topic of concern such as hypertension among the adult population.
- Consider the Intervention
Then, just consider the treatment or action that can be looked at in the piece of work. This could be a new drug, a type of treatment or a new system of delivering health care. For instance, one might be wondering whether or not physical exercise reduces the intensity of hypertension.
- Think About the Comparison
You need to determine what you would like to compare the intervention with. This could be another treatment, no treatment at all or the normal standard care that would be offered anyhow. As in our case, the comparison of variables might be as simple as between exercise and no exercise.
- Determine the Outcome
Last, consider what you want to find out at the end of measuring what you are going to measure. This could be something in nature that bears better health, reduced complaints or faster healings. For the blood pressure example, there might be a need to compare whether exercise lowers blood pressure.
- Put It All Together
After having these elements, you are in a position to combine them in order to come up with your PICO question.
PICO Question: Does exercise in adults with high blood pressure lower the blood pressure as compared to no exercise?
Conclusion
PICO acts as a guide to that cover; creating clear and precise questions in the field of nursing in order to arrive at evidence-based decisions and better patient outcomes. Using PICO, CDGs are able to simplify difficult clinical questions to help nursing practices be evidence-based.
PICO can be implemented into a nurses’ working practice due to its efficiency in assisting nurses to provide quality care and to improve patient outcomes making it relevant in the current nursing practice.
FAQs
Why is the PICO framework important in nursing?
The PICO framework is useful for the following reasons: This is because the PICO framework assists nurses to formulate particular and direct questions in accordance with actual practice in the course of accomplishing individualized patient care that will lead to enhanced patient care outcomes.
What does p mean in Pico?
In clinical research PICO,
P stands for Patient or Population: This study is about the following variables of an individual: Perhaps, it would be a particular group of people with a particular disease, a particular age, or some other quality.
What does PICO mean in clinical research?
PICO is used for Formulating a research question. PICO aids the researchers to have a clear understanding of the focus of their study and what they intend to discover.
- P stands for Patient or Problem: The subgroup has three questions, the first of which asks who or what the research is about? This could be a certain demography, a disease or an ailment of some sort.
- I stand for Intervention: The research question of any particular study has two components; What is the treatment, procedure, or action under consideration? This can be a fresh medicine, a certain type of treatment or any other approach which can be applied in the medical field.
- C stands for Comparison: Is the new one being administered in conjunction with the other treatment or intervention that it seems to be replacing? At other times, it might be compared with receiving no treatment.
- O stands for Outcome: The overall question that research seeks to answer is: This may be a reduction in symptoms, less side effects, or any other positive variation that the patient will register.
