A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the current hallmark of clinical nursing practice. It means that therapies and other interventions used in day-to-day nursing practice are supported by scientific evidence from scholarly peer-reviewed research. A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

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The research provides proof that the interventions are both safe for use in patients and efficacious in producing desired patient outcomes. EBP is what has been referred to as best practice. To build the body of knowledge in EBP, nurses question practices that do not have this kind of scientific evidence backing their efficacy. Usually, these are interventions that nurses use just because they have been used for a long time without being questioned. In contrast, this is what has been referred to as common practice. A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.There is need to change from common practice to best practice by adopting EBP and building on it. The process of doing that is the clinical inquiry process and the tool for doing it is the PICOT model (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019). This paper is about coming up with a PICOT statement on the clinical problem of surging covid-19 infections in the hospital.A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

The Population

The patient population that this PICOT clinical inquiry addresses is that of patients of any age who have pre-existing conditions such as those listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These conditions include type II diabetes mellitus, cancer, chronic kidney disease, obesity (with a BMI of more than 30 kg/m²), sickle cell disease, COPD, heart conditions, and conditions such as HIV that cause immunosuppression (CDC, 2020). The population comprises of adults of any age. A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.They could be having additional risk factors such as being frontline healthcare workers, working in places where masses of people normally converge, or working in an outdoor environment where one can easily come into contact with respiratory droplets. According to the CDC, persons with these pre-existing conditions will get a severe form of covid-19 if they get infected with the virus. As a result, they must take extra precautions to prevent infection with the virus. The CDC describes a serious form of coronavirus infection as being hospitalized, being admitted to ICU, or being intubated and put on mechanical ventilation.   A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

The Intervention

The multipronged intervention is a bundled approach to prevention. It comprises of three basic measures. These are (i) consistently wearing a standard face mask, (ii) frequently washing hands with soap and water after contact with people or surfaces, and (iii) avoiding crowded places. These interventions are universally prescribed for everyone by the World Health Organization (WHO) and national health authorities (Bai et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). However, for those with pre-existing conditions they must follow and implement them to the letter. Current evidence shows that mortality from coronavirus is higher among those who have pre-existing conditions than among those who do not.A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

Comparison

The comparison intervention is the wearing of masks alone without social distancing and frequent handwashing. This is the comparison intervention in this case because the use of masks has been advocated for a very long time since the covid-19 pandemic started. For this reason, it is very likely that most people will be wearing face masks than regularly washing hands or keeping social distance. Behaviourally, most persons also believe that once they are wearing a mask alone they are safe and protected from the novel coronavirus. This is what this clinical inquiry seeks to establish.A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

Expected Outcome and Timeframe

In carrying out the bundled approach to the intervention above for covid-19 infection prevention, the expected outcome is that the rate of covid-19 infections will go down among those with pre-existing conditions within a period of not more than six months. Putting a timeframe to this expected outcome is important as it makes the PICOT statement robust and measurable.A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.

Table: The PICOT elements for the prevention of covid-19 infection among those adults with pre-existing conditions

The PICOT Statement

From the above analysis, therefore; the PICOT question or statement would be as follows: “In adults of all ages with pre-existing conditions (P), does the implementation of the three-pronged measure of wearing masks, washing hands with soap and water, and avoiding crowded places (I) compared to the wearing of face masks alone (C) result in a reduction in the covid-19 infection rates (O) within a period of six months (T)?”A PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, and Timeframe) Paper on Covid-19.