NUR 352 - Nursing Research

PICO explained

PICO is a technique that uses four elements to formulate a good clinical question that returns relevant results in a database search. The technique helps clarify the question - the result is finding a better answer. Keyword brainstorming will help find synonyms used in the database (for example teenagers or adolescents or high school students).

P = patient, population, or problem

• a specific age cohort (adults, older people, adolescents, infants)

• a specific population (home-bound patients, hospitalized, nursing home patients)

• a specific health cohort (COPD, healthy, systemic lupus erythematosus)

• specific problem (hospital-acquired infection, fall injuries  in hospitalized patients, CPR methods)

I = intervention

• What is the treatment or intervention is in question?  (medication, specific therapy, specific procedure)

C = comparison

• What is an alternate treatment or intervention for the same treatment or intervention? (holistic medicine versus pharmaceuticals, heat therapy versus cold therapy, cat scan versus MRI)

0 = outcome

• What do you want to accomplish? (symptom or pain management, better healing time, safest method, survival)

PICO in action

Here is an example of a PICO question and resulting search terms. 

In adults with systemic lupus erythematosus, will drugs manage pain symptoms more effectively than complementary or alternative medicine therapies?

P - adults with systemic lupus erythematosus 

I - drugs

C - complementary and alternative medicine

O - manage pain symptoms

Search terms:

P - systemic lupus erythematosus is listed as subject heading Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic in CINAHL

I - drugs

C - alternative medicine, complementary medicine (or be more specific: traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic, supplements, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, massage)

O - pain management, pain control, pain therapy