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A clinical question needs to be directly relevant to the patient or problem at hand. It helps to phrase it in such a way as to get the best possible results from the evidence. PICO(T) makes this process easier. It is a mnemonic for categorizing the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It also helps to lay the foundation for your search strategy by identifying the key concepts that need to be in the article that can answer your question.
Population/ Patient/ Problem – who are you researching?
Intervention – treatment you’re looking into. Examples include medications, exercise, therapies, diet
Comparison – standard treatment or alternate intervention
Outcome – must be measurable so it can be meaningfully compared
Time (optional) – what is your timeframe?
The clinical question helps you determine what to look for – what to include and what to exclude. Determine your question before beginning your search. Once you have your question, use it for search terms including similar or synonymous terms, for example immunization and vaccine. Remember to use main points for your search, not little ones - blood pressure, not vital signs.
When you do your actual search, combine terms for different parts of your question, but not all four. It is recommended to look up the intervention or comparison, not both in your search, at least to start. Using too many search terms may limit your search unnecessarily. Aim for at least a couple pages of results. If you have over a thousand results, use limiters and additional search terms to narrow it down. Part of seeking clinical research is taking the articles you find in different searches and comparing them to each other.
Disclaimer
The nursing library liaisons are not health sciences professionals so we cannot determine the accuracy or validity of PICO questions from nursing students. We recommend contacting your nursing faculty or graduate assistant feedback. The Nursing Liaison Librarians can certainly help you with organizing your PICO questions as well as look for articles to address your formatted PICO question.
AccessMedicine features core textbooks for medical education, with additional news and resources. Includes captions.
Note: we don't have complete access to all the case files.
AccessPediatrics provides access to text books, atlases, videos, and other resources related to pediatrics, information necessary for completing evaluations, diagnoses, and case management decisions, as well as for pursuing research or self-assessment and board review. Includes captions. Limited to 10 simultaneous users.
DynaMed is an evidence-based information resource used by physicians around the world to answer clinical questions quickly and easily. DynaMed includes thousands of topics covering emergency medicine, cardiology, oncology, infectious diseases, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and much more.
Note: if you get an error message, close the browser and try accessing the site again.
As of June 30, 2024, UIC will no longer have an institutional subscription to DynaMed. More info.