Evidence Based Practice Coursework Example

PICOT Worksheet – Week 3
For Use March 2018
Name:
Date:
Your Instructor’s Name:
Purpose: To identify a problem or concern that nursing can change and develop a PICOT question to guide the change project.
Directions: Use the form below to complete the Week 3 Assignment PICOT Evidence Worksheet. This includes filling in the table with information about your research question and your PICOT elements and the second part is filling in the Evidence Worksheet.
Step 1: Select the key PICO terms for searching the evidence. Clearly define your PICOT question. List each element P (problem, population, or problem), I (intervention), C (Comparison with other treatment/current practice), and O (Desired outcome), T (Time Frame). Is the potential solution something for which you (as nurse or student) can find a solution through evidence research? Look in your book for guidelines to developing your PICOT question and also read the required articles.
Step 2: Identify the problem. What have you noticed in your work or school environment that isn’t achieving the desired patient or learning outcomes? What needs to change in nursing, what can you change with the support of evidence in the literature? Describe the problem or practice issue that you want to research. What is your practice area; clinical, education, or administration? (This is NOT where you will list your PICOT question)
Step 3: How was the practice issues identified? How did you come to know this was a problem in your clinical practice? Review the listed concerns and check all that apply.

Step 4: Identifies and documents four sources of evidence. What evidence must be gathered? What sources of reliable information will be helpful for your particular question? Describes rationale for all checked types of evidence
Step 5: What terms will you use in order to make sure that your search is wide enough to obtain required information but narrow enough to keep it focused? How will you narrow your search if needed?

PICOT Question
What is the PICOT question?
How does proper hand hygiene protocol by both nurses and patients reduce hospital acquired infection (HAI) in patients admitted for various illnesses?
Define each element of the question below:
P- (Patient, population, or problem): The population is patients admitted in hospital who are at the risk of contracting HAIs such as urinary tract infections after 48 hours of admission.
I- (Intervention): The recommended intervention is the implementation of routine and mandatory hand hygiene in the clinical settings for both the nurses and patients.
C- (Comparison with other treatment/current practice): Comparison is made between the rates of HAIs before and after the intervention
O- (Desired outcome): Significant reduction of HAI incidences in the hospital
T- (Time Frame): 30 days
What is the practice issue/problem? What is the scope of the issue? What is the need for change?
Hospital acquired infections are some of the leading causes of comorbidity and mortality around the world. Apart from the associated unsatisfactory patients’ outcomes such as longer hospital stays, HAIs may be challenging to identify (Patel, 2018). The treatment may also be associated with additional costs as the patients and their families are required to pay for the extra medical expenses. Prevention of such infections is therefore a vital goal in any clinical settings. Proper hand hygiene is important to not only manage the routes through which such infections occur but is also necessary in eliminating the major microorganisms that cause the HAIs such as viruses and bacteria (Patel, 2018).
What is the practice area?
(check all that apply)
__*_ Clinical
___ Education ___ Administration
___ Other
How was the practice issue identified? (check all that apply)
_*__ Safety/risk management concerns
__*_ Unsatisfactory patient outcomes
___ Wide variations in practice
___ Significant financial concerns ___ Difference between hospital and community practice
__*_ Clinical practice issue is a concern
___ Procedure or process is a time waster
___ Clinical practice issue has no scientific base
___ Other:
What evidence must be gathered? (Identifies and documents four sources of evidence. Describes rationale for all checked types of evidence)
__*_ Literature search: To offer evidence from current studies on the link between HAI and hand hygiene
__*_ Guidelines: To acquire insight on the basic hand hygiene for the nursing practice
_*__ Expert Opinion
___ Patient Preferences ___ Clinical Expertise
___ Financial Analysis
__*_ Standards (Regulatory, professional, community): To provide knowledge of the levels of the basic hand hygiene required of nurses
___ Other
Search terms/How to narrow the search?
The search will be narrowed using searching terms such as hand washing, hand hygiene, hospital acquired infections, and their synonyms. The search is conducted on online nursing and clinical databases. Filters are further used to narrow the search to peer reviewed articles that are published within five years.
Reference
Patel, M. (2018). Healthcare-associated infection: best practice in prevention and control. Stroke, 13, 57.