How EBP is used in nursing practice

Question 1  Share what evidence-based practice means to you (EBP) and describe how EBP is used in your practice setting.

Question 2 The PICO (T) format is a way to develop a clinical question that lends itself to searching for evidence. Select a common nursing practice (e.g., wound care management) in your clinical setting and formulate a PICO question. Once you have formulated your question, conduct a library search and locate one scholarly article that addresses the topic you have selected. Post your clinical question in the TD, explain the PICO(T) elements, and provide a full reference of the article you selected.

PICO (T) means population, intervention, comparison, outcome and timeframe

How can you recognize and formulate clinical questions as they occur?  First, pay careful attention to the questions that spontaneously occur to you.  Listen for the ‘question behind the question.’  Next, try saying your questions out loud or writing them down with all four components included.  Then build your question in two steps, starting with the ‘location,’ such as ‘my question is about therapy,’ Ask yourself what type of clinical scenario would you like to consider:      Therapy?     Prognosis?         Diagnosis?   Harm?

Then, articulate all four PICO components explicitly.  See the example below.

What if too many questions arise?  Select from the many questions the few that are most important to answer right away.  Ask yourself, “What is the most important issue for this patient now?  What issue should I address first?  Which question, when answered, will help me most?

PICO Example:

Patient or Problem: 65-year-old man with a stroke & moderate carotid stenosis

Intervention: ASA (acetylsalicylic acid)

Comparison Intervention: Placebo

Outcome: Stroke