ESSAY: PICOT/PICo and Practice Questions

Week 2: PICOT/PICo and Practice Questions

The focus for Week 2 is on questions: PICOT/PICo and practice questions.
• Using the area of interest from Week 1, identify the following.
o Will you be using a quantitative or qualitative approach for your EBP project proposal?
o Explain why this approach is the best one to provide information for your area of interest.
o Create a PICOT/PICo question using the PICOT/PICo format for quantitative and PICo for qualitative approaches.
o Identify your practice question, being sure to include the following.
o For a quantitative approach
 A questioning part such as “what is,” “what are,” “is there,” or “are there”
 Population being studied
 Variables being studied
 Suggestion of the relationship between variables
o For a qualitative approach
 Phenomenon or concept of interest
 Group or population of interest
 Suggestion of which qualitative research design is being used
Choose either quantitative or qualitative- only the proposed approach needs to be addressed.

My specialty track is Masters of Nursing in education
So we know that hand washing reduces hospital accquaired infections, but on the education part is that health care workers are not taking the time to wash hand properly if at all. So I was leaning toward if we improved healthcare workers hand washing technique and frequency with education healthcare workers would improve hand washing and their frequency of hand washing, which in turns reduces HAI’s.
my PICO question should be something like this.

P: improper hand washing and to low of frequency of hand washing by healthcare employees.

I: Education on proper hand washing and the frequesncy needed to decrease the amount of HAI’s, ensure employees are washing had frequently and properly

C: Compare hospital employees that are not frequently or properly washing hands to those who are washing hands frequently and properly

O: Improve hand washing compliance, with a reduction of HAI’s

T: Could be length of patient hospital stay.

ANSWER

Will You Be Using a Quantitative or Qualitative Approach for Your EBP Project Proposal?

I will be using qualitative approach for my Evidence Based Practice Project through qualitative interviews and analyzing the data using a methodology that can be interpreted to explore how the various interviewed groups perceive hand washing and general hygiene in nursing practice. The methodology will involve developing themes that analyze individuals, the workforce and the management on what they perceive about hand washing (Randle, Arthur, & Vaughan, 2010).

Explain Why This Approach Is the Best One to Provide Information for Your Area of Interest

It is first important to underscore the fact that both quantitative and qualitative approaches provide data that is crucial in evidence based practice. However, I opted to use qualitative approach because it supports both personal and experimental knowledge whose implementation will be critical in my chosen evidence based practice. Besides this, qualitative approach provides findings which are easy to interpret for many nursing practitioners (Pincock, Bernstein, Warthman & Holst, 2012). Qualitative approaches also involve the patients through interviews and questionnaires and as such they feel part of the exercise. For my chosen EBP, it will help them advocate more for hand washing as the results provided will be directly linked to what they provide as feedback.

Create A PICOT/Pico Question Using The PICOT/Pico Format for Quantitative and Pico for Qualitative Approaches.

So does the effective hand washing and frequency of hand washing among health care workers determine the rate of Health Care Acquired Infections (HAI’s)? My PICOT question based on qualitative approach will be as follows.

P: The problem is improper hand washing as well as low hand washing frequency among health care workers as a source of health care related infections.

I: The intervention is training and educating health care workers on the need to not only wash hands but do it frequently to reduce the rate of Health Care acquired Infections

C: The comparison we make is for hospital workers who properly and frequently wash their hands with those who don’t wash well or wash but not frequently

O: The expected outcome is reduction of the Health Acquired Infections due to improved hand washing practices.

T: The time could be the length the health care worker stays in hospital.

Identify Your Practice Question, Being Sure to Include the Following.

Phenomenon or Concept of Interest

                  It is common knowledge that effective hand washing practices helps reduce the rate of infections in a hospital setting. A wrong assumption however continues to be made that such infections are as a result of patient transmission and not health care workers. The logic I try to pass through my EBP is to also consider health care workers as a way of helping to curb the rate of spread of infections. My essay leaned towards health care workers other than patients.

Group or Population of Interest

                  The first group to be targeted is the health care workers since they form the central reason for the research. Secondly, it will be important to look at how the hospital management helps promote hand washing practices among workers, Patients will also be interviewed to analyze their perception on hand washing practices among health care workers.

Suggestion of Which Qualitative Research Design Is Being Used                    The suggested research design is to use respondents through questionnaires as well as one on one interviews. Since there is a target group, it will be important to do careful sampling based on departments or the position…