Tips for Writing a Well-Designed PICOT Question
PICOT questions should not be wordy. Instead of writing, “hospitalized geriatric patients with dementia,” for the P, something simpler like, “geriatric patients with dementia” OR “geriatric dementia patients”, thus leading to a better search. [3]
The question should not have unnecessary words, but should only include key terms of interest. [3]
An “I” of “applying a sterile dressing” would be better replaced by “sterile dressing”. Additional words such as “provide,” “implement,” “use,” “deliver,” or “apply,” add unnecessary words for the search engine to process. [3]
PICOT question should not be used to find evidence to support decisions that Clinicians have made, but rather should be used to find out the best practice. [3]
Instead of an “I” indicating “providing distraction activities”, an “I” that indicated “interventions” or “strategies” would be better at finding effective search results, since your search should be the best practice that you or your colleagues are unaware about, or didn’t know about. You wouldn’t find the answer to a new question if you’re only looking for a biased answer. [3]
PICOT questions should be written in the past tense, since you are looking find out about things that already occurred. However, research questions are written in the present tense. [3]
PICOT questions do not include directional terms, such as “increased” or “improved”, as this will make the search biased. [3]
In addition, PICOT questions cannot be changed once written. Additional questions can be created, but you cannot changed a question that is already in use. [3]
It does take time and patient to write a good PICOT question, which will help make an productive and effective EBP search. [3]
Resources
Check out the series of pages under the Evidence Based Practice for creating research with best available evidence, and specifically check out the page Formulate an answerable question, for an in-depth explanation of the components of PICO.
The University of North Carolina has a great guide for creating and explaining PICOT questions, which can be found here: Forming Focused Questions with PICO: About PICO
This detailed instructional video from Binghamton University Libraries helps explain the components of PICO(T), and how to write a PICO(T) question: [4]
