The PICOT question is a consistently formatted question or “formula” for developing answerable, researchable questions. A well written PICOT question makes the rest of the literature search and research process of finding and evaluating evidence much more straightforward.
PICOT question:
P: Patient Population (age, gender, ethnicity, individuals with a certain disorder)
I: Intervention or Issue of Interest (exposure to a disease, risk behavior, prognostic factor)
C: Comparison of Intervention or Issue of interest with current or former interventions
O: Improved Outcome (risk of disease, accuracy of a diagnosis, rate of occurrence of adverse outcome)
T: Time Frame (not every question will have a time)
You will be submitting a PICOT question. Consider the type of research you are interested in or if you are doing something new at work and wonder why the change, review the various PICOT question formats to create a PICOT question for your research this term.
Submit ONE fully written PICOT Question and add the identification of the P – I – C – O & (T, if applicable).
