The first step of the evidence-based practice process is to evaluate a nursing practice environment to identify a nursing problem in the clinical area. When a nursing problem is discovered, the nurse researcher develops a clinical guiding question to address that nursing practice problem. For this assignment, you will create a clinical guiding question know as a PICOT question. The PICOT question must be relevant to a nursing practice problem. To support your PICOT question, identify six supporting peer-revised research articles, as indicated below. The PICOT question and six peer-reviewed research articles you choose will be utilized for subsequent assignments. Use the “Literature Evaluation Table” to complete this assignment. Note: To assist in your search, remove the words qualitative and quantitative and include words that narrow or broaden your main topic. For example: Search for diabetes and pediatric and dialysis. To determine what research design was used in the articles the search produced, review the abstract and the methods section of the article. The author will provide a description of data collection using qualitative or quantitative methods. Systematic Reviews, Literature Reviews, and Metanalysis articles are good resources and provide a strong level of evidence but are not considered primary research articles.  Therefore, they should not be included in this assignment. While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Introduction:

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a systematic approach to clinical decision-making that integrates the best available evidence with clinical expertise and patient values and preferences (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The first step of the EBP process is to evaluate the nursing practice environment to identify a nursing problem in the clinical area (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). Once a nursing problem is identified, a clinical guiding question, known as a PICOT question, is developed to address that problem (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). This assignment aims to create a PICOT question relevant to a nursing practice problem and identify six supporting peer-reviewed research articles.

PICOT Question:

The first step in creating a PICOT question is to identify the key elements of the question. These elements include the patient population, intervention or issue of interest, comparison intervention or issue, outcome, and time (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011). The PICOT question provides a framework for guiding the search for evidence and the development of a practice change (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2011).

Population/Problem: The first element of the PICOT question is the patient population or the nursing problem of interest. For this assignment, the nursing problem identified is the high prevalence of medication errors among elderly patients in a long-term care facility.

Intervention/Issue: The second element of the PICOT question is the intervention or issue of interest. In this case, the intervention of interest is the implementation of medication reconciliation process in the medication administration process for elderly patients in the long-term care facility.

Comparison: The third element of the PICOT question is the comparison intervention or issue. In this case, the comparison intervention is the current medication administration process without implementing medication reconciliation.

Outcome: The fourth element of the PICOT question is the desired outcome or the effect of the intervention. In this case, the desired outcome is a reduction in the prevalence of medication errors among elderly patients in the long-term care facility.

Time: The final element of the PICOT question is the time frame in which the outcome is expected to occur. In this case, the time frame is within a six-month period.

Based on the identified elements, the following PICOT question has been formulated: In elderly patients in a long-term care facility, does the implementation of medication reconciliation process in the medication administration process compared to the current medication administration process without medication reconciliation within a six-month period reduce the prevalence of medication errors?

Search Strategy:

To support the PICOT question, it is essential to identify six supporting peer-reviewed research articles. The search strategy involves using keywords that narrow or broaden the main topic. The words qualitative and quantitative are removed from the search to avoid limitations. For example, the search can be conducted using keywords such as medication reconciliation, elderly patients, and long-term care facility.

The articles selected for this assignment should provide a description of data collection using either qualitative or quantitative methods. Systematic reviews, literature reviews, and meta-analyses are valuable resources but are not considered primary research articles and should not be included in this assignment.

It is important to use a literature evaluation table to summarize the key findings of each article. The table should include information such as the author, year of publication, research design, sample size, key findings, and limitations of the study. This will assist in organizing the information and facilitate the analysis of the articles.

Conclusion:

The first step in the EBP process is to evaluate the nursing practice environment to identify a nursing problem. The PICOT question is then developed to address the identified nursing problem. This assignment aimed to create a PICOT question relevant to a nursing practice problem and identify six supporting peer-reviewed research articles. The next step in the EBP process involves critically appraising the research articles and synthesizing the findings to inform clinical decision-making and practice change.