Nursing: PICOT

To formulate questions in Evidence Based Practice, use the PICOT format.

PICOT stands for:

• Population/ Patient Problem: Who is your patient? (Disease or Health status, age, race, sex)
• Intervention: What do you plan to do for the patient? (Specific tests, therapies, medications)
• Comparison: What is the alternative to your plan? (ie. No treatment, different type of treatment, etc.)
• Outcome: What outcome do you seek? (Less symptoms, no symptoms, full health, etc.)
• Time:  What is the time frame? (This element is not always included.)

Your PICOT question will fall under one of these types:

• Therapy/Prevention
• Diagnosis
• Etiology
• Prognosis

The documents in the box on the left to find which level of research is appropriate for your type of PICOT question.

These two databases are a good place to begin research on PICOT questions. 

Infographic created and developed by the News Literacy Project and Dr. Katrine Wallace.