What Is a PICOT Question?

Many nursing courses ask you to write a PICOT question before you search for evidence, and the wording matters more than most students expect. PICOT stands for population, intervention, comparison, outcome and time. Writing each element separately first keeps the question searchable: if you cannot name the outcome you want to measure, you do not yet have a question you can search for. Once the elements are written, combine them into a single sentence and use the key words as search terms. If your search returns thousands of results, the question is too broad; if it returns almost nothing, one element is too specific.