Service Alert
EBP integrates the best available evidence to guide nursing care and improve patient outcomes. This helps health practitioners address health care questions with an evaluative and qualitative approach.
Evidence based practice (EBP) is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about patient care (Sackett, Straus, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, 2000).
It is a problem solving approach to clinical practice and administrative issues that integrates:
The EBP process is a method that allows the practitioner to assess research, clinical guidelines, and other information resources based on high quality findings and apply the results to practice.
A clinical question needs to be directly relevant to the patient or problem at hand and phrased in such a way as to facilitate the search for an answer. PICO makes this process easier. It is a mnemonic for the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It also helps formulate the search strategy by identifying the key concepts that need to be in the article that can answer the question.
PICO or PICOTT:
PATIENT OR PROBLEM
How would you describe a group of patients similar to yours? What are the most important characteristics of the patient?
INTERVENTION, EXPOSURE, PROGNOSTIC FACTOR
What main intervention are you considering? What do you want to do with this patient?
COMPARISON
What is the main alternative being considered, if any?
OUTCOME
What are you trying to accomplish, measure, improve or affect?
Source: "Evidence Based Practice: PICO" Duke University Medical Center Library and Archives
https://guides.mclibrary.duke.edu/ebm/pico
Source: "Evidence Based Practice" Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses
https://www.amsn.org/practice-resources/evidence-based-practice