Skip to Main Content

Evidence Based Practice

What is PICO and sample Questions

PICO is an acronym to help you formulate a clinical question and guide your search for evidence. 

P   Patient or Problem

I     Intervention

C   Comparison

O   Outcome

 

PICO Method explained (2:59)

From Showmetheevidence.com / You Tube, August 2015. Creators from Temple University, Oberlin College, and UCLA Medical School.

Articles discussing PICO

PICO --- OVID form

Using the PICO question, this tool will help you locate articles in OVID Medline.

Ovid Database:
P: Patient, Population, Problem or disease
    who are the patients, what is the problem
Age:
Gender:
Ethnicity:
Disorder:
I: Intervention or Issue
    what we do to them, what are they exposed to
Intervention / Issue:
C: Comparison intervention or issue
    what do we compare the intervention with
Comparison:
O: Outcome
    what happens, what is the outcome
Outcome/Risks:

Using PICO Tool offered by PubMed.

Resources listed on these guides are compiled by librarians at the R.A. Williams Library. We accept content recommendations, and after review, may include suggested resources on a guide. Our time is limited, so we generally do not reply to unsolicited recommendations from individuals not affiliated with AdventHealth University or notify them regarding whether or not we have linked to suggested content.