The fundamental skill necessary to conduct evidence-based practice is learning to design a Well-Built Clinical Question.
Once you decide what you are interested in learning about, you need to change that thought into a question. A well-thought-out question is important because the key terms in that question are the same terms you will use to search the literature.
You can develop this important question by using PICO. PICO is an acronym for population, intervention, comparison, and outcome.
By answering four questions…
…you will have the key terms you need to search the literature.
Formulating the question will help you identify the keywords you will use to search for the information you need.
One tool that has been developed to help you do this is the PICO method.
See what each letter stands for:
NEXT (Population)
