This document discusses the steps of evidence-based practice and how to formulate a clinical question using PICOTT. It outlines the five steps in evidence-based medicine: assess the patient, ask the question, acquire resources, appraise the evaluation, and apply to the patient. It also provides guidance on defining the population, intervention, comparison, outcome, and type of question. Different study types like etiology, diagnosis, therapy and prognosis are defined. Tips for effective searching like quotation marks, AND, OR, and NOT operators are reviewed.

1. RN-BSN-MSN
Orientation
Carolyn Schubert

3. Evidence Based Practice

4. The Steps in the Evidence Based
Medicine Process
ASSESS the patient
ASK the question
ACQUIRE the resources
APPRAISE the evaluation
APPLY to the patient

5. PICO or PICOTT –
How to ask the question
P – Population, patient, or patient problem
I – Intervention, treatment, or exposure
C – Comparison of a 2nd intervention, treatment,
exposure
O – Outcome
TT – What type of question do I have, what type
of study do I need?

6. Study Types
•Etiology – Causes of a health issue
•Diagnosis – Identification of a health issue
•Therapy - Treatment of a health issue
•Prognosis – Probability of recovery

7. Research in Context

8. Search Tips Review
1. Quotation marks A. Expands # of results
(“ “) B. Excludes # of results
2. AND C. Searches spelling
3. OR variations
4. NOT D. Searches multiple words
as a phrase
5. Wildcard (*)
E. Filters 2 sets of results to
find results that meet
BOTH search criteria

9. Mining the Article
Databases
With a well-formed PICOTT
question, now you are ready to
start searching for and
collecting groups of results