PICOT question - Assignment Example

PICOT Question al Affiliation PICOT Question Summary of the Nursing Situation When I was working at Arkansas hospital, the surgeon gave me a pen and I marked the wrong limb, leading to irreparable damages to the patient who had his right limb amputated instead of the left one. It was a devastating experience for the entire team and the patient since it altered his life. It damaged the reputation of the health facility after the patient filed a legal suit, causing financial loss and needless suffering and pain.

On further review of the cause of the incident, it was noted that the patient’s test results had been mixed up, there were incorrect markings, there was poor communication between the nurses and the doctors, poor teamwork, and there was miscommunication on whether it is the patient’s right or left limb that was to be amputated. Type of question that best suits the situationIn this particular situation the type of question that suits the given nursing situation is the intervention question.

This kind of medical question considers a particular intervention or issue and compares it to a standard intervention or issue with regard to the effect that it will have on the population over a given period of time (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015). In this instance, since time is not a critical factor, the analysis and search will only consider the population, the intervention , the standard comparison issues and the expected or possible outcome. These three elements ,therefore, need to be determined for the right information to be obtained from the completed PICO question (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2015).

The Elements in the QuestionAs indicated earlier, the question in this nursing situation will have four vital elements, which are necessary to allow for the execution of an effective and informative search. The population in this case is that of patients who visit various healthcare facilities for surgical operations. This is the group that has been identified to be at risk of the concerns raised. The intervention (issue) here is the use of schedule forms when preparing patients for the surgical operations.

The third element for the case is the comparison intervention. From the summary of the nursing situation, it is evident that the staff at health facility relied on markings made using a pen to be able to know the body part that was to be operated on and the identity of the patient. Therefore, the comparison issue is the use of pens to carry out this marking. The final element is the outcome. In this case, it is the reduction in the number of erroneous operations. The reduction is measurable since it only requires noting the number of operations without errors and the flawed ones.

Complete PICOTFrom the analysis of the situation, below is the PICO question that is to be used for the search.In patients who are to undergo a surgical procedure in a health facility (P), how does the utilization of scheduling form (I) compared to the normal marking process using pens (C) minimize and reduce erroneous operations (0)?ReferencesMelnyk, B. & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2015). Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice. Philadelphia : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.