Planning your search strategy is important as it allows you to understand your research topic better. It also ensures that you keep within the scope of your research topic. When you plan your search, you should:
Define your key concepts
Identify keywords and synonyms associated with your key concepts
Scope out existing literature
Check out Step 1: Ask in our Evidence-Based Practice guide for more information about how to use PICOTT and create a clinical question. Use the evidence pyramid in the guide to determine the type of research you are looking for.
Sometimes you may find that PICOTT may not quite suit your needs, especially if you have a non-clinical question. In this case, you may want to try using a different framework to help you formulate and answer your research question. Check out the toolbox below for other frameworks you can use to formulate answerable research questions.
Toolbox
PICOT stands for
Population / Patient / Problem
- What is the specific population of the subject / the patients' problem or situation?
Intervention
- What is the therapy / intervention to be evaluated?
Comparison (optional)
- What is the main alternative?
Outcome
- What could the intervention affect? Or the likelihood of leading to a specific outcome?
Timeframe (optional)
- What is the specific period of time the research will focus on?
Type of Clinical Research Question
Relevant Elements
Example
Therapy / Intervention
- How effective is a therapy / intervention, such as drug treatments, clinical therapies, or lifestyle changes?
P, I, C, O, T
Does a risk assessment checklist or score help to prevent falls compared to patient education alone on elderly patientsduring short-stay hospitalisation?
Benefit & Risk Analysis
- Would an intervention bring benefits that outweigh its risks?
P, I, O
Does HPV vaccines bring protection to indigenous people in Japan outweigh its potential side-effects?
Diagnosis
- How accurate is a testing tool for diagnosis?
P, I, C, O
Howaccurate is a blood test comparing to a urine test for hCG results in earliest detection ofpregnancy
Prognosis
- What are the likelihood of the outcome under specified circumstances?
P,O
For adolescents with early detectedMultiple sclerosis, what is the likelihood of progressive supranuclear palsy?
- What is the specific population of the subject / the patients' problem or situation/condition or diseases in the specific population?
Interest
- What is the phenomena / the defined event /experience /activity to be examined
Context
- What is the specific context to have the experience / activity
Type of Clinical Research Question
Relevant Elements
Example
Experience evaluation
- What is the experience of an event /activity?
P, I, Co
What are the caregivers' experiences on seeking quality respite care provide from nursing home in the State of Victoria, Australia?
SPICE stands for
Setting
- where or in what kind of setting?
Perspective
- from whose point of view or for whom?
Intervention
- what is the intervention / activity to be evaluated?
Comparison (Optional)
- another intervention for comparison
Evaluation
- what are the results? outcome?
Type of Clinical Research Question
Relevant Elements
Example
Evaluation of practice /seeking best practice/ Evaluation an project
- How effective is the current intervention in a setting for the specific group?
S,P,I,C, E
How supportive did student nurses find online consultation comparing to small group discussion session during clinical placement in arural community health setting?
SPIDER stands for
Sample
- What is the subject / population / group of people of the research?
Phenomenon of Interest
- What is the experience / projects / services / program to be evaluated?
Design
- What is the methodology of research (usually qualitative ones) you are looking for?
Evaluation
- How or what is positive / negative of an experience? / How good / efficient is a service?
Research type
- Qualitative / mixed-method?
Type of Clinical Research Question
Relevant Elements
Example
Understanding experience
- What had been learnt from the experience?
Service evaluation
- How can a service be improved?
- Find out evidence of good service / intervention
S, PI, D, E, R
S, PI, D, E, R
What are the retired people's experience of volunteering in an acute hospital setting?
(by questionnaires andfocus groups)
Mixed-method research
What are the barriers of accessingemergency service for people with a physical disability
(by focus groups and follow-up with telephone interviews) Qualitative research
- what is the improvement / expected information channels / innovation related to the service / policy?
Client group
- the client group that the service is for / the policy affect
Location
- the location of the service cover?
Impact
- the service or policy can be evaluated whether or not it has had a specified outcome
Professionals
- the professionals involved in providing the service / related to the policies
SErvice
- What is the service / relevant policies to be reviewed?
Type of Clinical Research Question
Relevant Elements
Example
Policy review
- What had been learnt from the experience?
Service evaluation
- Can the service reach its goals / meet the expectation?
- How can a service be improved?
- Find out evidence of good service / intervention
E, C, L, I, P,Se
E, C, L, I, P, Se
From nurse managers' perspective,how effective is the hospital visitor policy during COVID-19 pandemic being put in place assisting in preventing the spread of COVID-19 to the community?
What is the caregivers'' experience on seeking referral channels among community mental health services in metropolitan Melbourne?
Check out the following article to understand how to use ECLIPSE in health service / health policy research in detail:
Wildridge, V., & Bell, L. (2002). How CLIP became ECLIPSE: a mnemonic to assist in searching for health policy/management information. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 19(2), 113-115.
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