EBP is basically a method for making clinical decisions or answering clinical questions using the best available evidence in coordination with the expertise of the clinician and the preferences and values of the patient.

Clinical research questions are often framed using the abbreviation PICO. The elements of a PICO question are:

P:

What is the Patient population being studied?

I:

What is the Intervention being studied or recommended?

C:

What Comparison Interventions exist?

O:

What is the desired patient outcome?

Thinking about your clinical research question in terms of its PICO components can be a helpful way to begin the literature review process.

Evidence Based Practice Tutorial for Nurses

Developed by the University of Minnesota Libraries

When clicking through the tutorial, be sure to complete Step 1 through Step 5 by clicking on each individual module following the introduction, as shown below.

(above: screen shot of tutorial)

An important part of EBP is forming a good clinical question and finding and evaluating the evidence relating to the question. See the pyramid below for a quick overview of the ranking of information in EBP. 

CFCF, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons