PICO Questions

The primary purpose of the PICO question is to ask the question, "Should we change our practice to include this new intervention or continue with our current policy/procedure, when caring for this patient population?" The decision to change practice will be based on the measured outcomes of the studies.

The PICO question is a formula that is applied throughout the EBP process.

The PICO Formula

It is not coincidence that this process is called formulating. When you formulate a PICO question, you are creating a formula that does several things:

• Focus the question by identifying the components in the question
• Define the concepts that will be used when performing a complex literature search
• Ascertain which articles in a search retrieval best address the question
• Determine if studies identified in the search address the original question
• Ultimately the process will provide the information needed to make a decision whether or not the intervention in the PICO question should be implemented