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Nursing 286: Transition to Practice

Resources and information to help in all aspects of your Evidence Based Capstone Project

Evidence Based Practice

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) s the process of looking at the research to determine the best course of treatment. You want to make your decision based on the evidence.

Simple right?

There's a little bit more to it than that. The tabs above will help you learn what kind of evidence is the "best" (most trustworthy) and how to format your research question to align with EBP.

The pyramid below illustrates the different Levels of trustworthy Evidence. Everything listed below would be a "good" source, but as you can see, even in that window some sources have more evidence supporting them, making them even better!

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.)

PICOT is an exercise that can help you move from a topic to a clinical question that will form the basis for your research. See the example below:

Topic: Private Hospital Rooms

Patient/Problem Hospital acquired infections
Intervention Private rooms
Comparison

Semi-private rooms
Outcome Reduction in hospital acquired infections

Clinical research question: Do private hospital rooms reduce the occurrence of hospital acquired infections?