Step 1: Question
Patient Population
The first part of formulating the question is about the population. What individual or group are you interested in studying? Let’s look at three examples.
- In our first example, you may be interested in studying newly-graduated registered nurses.
- A second example might be a colleague working in pediatrics interested in looking at a population of preterm infants.
- A third example might be a team studying post-operative CAB G patients.
We will use these three examples to illustrate the PICO process.
Questions to ask
- On what patient group do you want information?
- Starting with your patient, ask "how would I describe a group of patients similar to mine?"
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