At this stage in the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) process you need to identify a problem or area of uncertainty where there is a need for more information, and then formulate this research problem into a clinical question.
There are a number of methods you can use to help formulate your clinical question in order to be able to find the best evidence in the most efficient way.
Here we will highlight TWO of these methods, namely PICO and PEO.
THE PROBLEM:
An obese woman, aged 58, has been advised to have surgery on her knee for an anterior cruciate ligament injury. As both her parents died during surgery, she says she would prefer not to have surgery and rather try losing weight and exercising first.
Formulating your clinical question using PICO...
From here you can use a template to formulate your question:
Using PICO in this way, your CLINICAL QUESTION could be...
For female patients with anterior cruciate ligament injuries and obesity how does arthroscopic surgery affect the probability of walking without pain when compared with exercise and weight loss?
or you can rephrase as something like...
In female patients with anterior cruciate ligament injuries and obesity, is arthroscopic surgery more effective than exercise and weight loss in increasing the probability of walking without pain?
THE PROBLEM:
You have noticed that some patients with nerve damage caused by diabetes cope with amputation quite well, while other patients seem to struggle with the ordinary daily tasks.
Formulating your question using PEO...
From here you can use a template to formulate your question:
Using PEO in this way, your CLINICAL QUESTION could be...
Does the lived experience change when patients with diabetic neuropathy are exposed to limb amputation?
OR...