Question

Identify a PICO question which is related to an element of a   cardiovascular assessment? Argue the importance of your PICO topic (500 words). Why does it need to be searched (could be more than one reason). Is it because there is not much evidence already? Is it because it is a safety issue? Is it an emerging issue? All arguments must be supported with reference to scholarly literature.

Answer 1

So P=Population/Problem, I=Intervention, C=Comparison/Control, and O=Outcome. They don't have to be in that order, but get something for each area and start putting it together from there. Maybe you already have a question about cardiovascular assessment that you want to know. It might be around the patient interview, the physical assessment, or laboratory tests. Just consider what you might not know, and find out about it by making it into a question that you can then find the answer to by researching it.

The PICO framework is often recommended as a way to structure and focus clinical questions. PICO can make it easier to identify search concepts and appraise the results retreived from database searches.

PICO stands for

• Patient and Problem
• Intervention or exposure
• Comparison or Control
• Outcome

When you break down your question using PICO, keep the following points in mind:

• Your Patient is a member of a population as well as a person with (or at risk for) a health problem. In addition to age and sex, you may also need to consider ethnicity, socioeconomic status or other demographic variables when you look for and evaluate the evidence.
  
• A Comparison is not always present in a PICO analysis. If you are evaluating the utility of a diagnostic test, though, you will need to compare the new test to the "reference standard".
  
• Outcomes should be measurable: the best evidence comes from rigorous studies with statistically significant findings.
  
• Outcomes ideally measure quality of life or clinical well being, and not surrogate markers such as laboratory test results.