Use the PICOT worksheet to sketch out:
- P-I-C-O-T elements for your topic
- some are optional, and some you may not know yet
- Question type
- is it an intervention, etiology, diagnosis, prognosis, or meaning question?
- How you might state your PICOT question
- scanning question templates/examples can help you to frame your question
At this point, you still may not know:
- if there is enough evidence to answer your clinical question
- what specific, measurable outcome is the best one to use
- whether you need to narrow or broaden your population any further
- whether you should modify/change your intervention or comparison
The next step is to search CINAHL and/or Medline to answer those questions, so you can develop an answerable PICOT question.
