PICO Reflective Essay

The PICO template provides an effective framework for searching electronic databases. It prompts the generation of search terms to improve accuracy. We used a therapy based clinical question looking at the effectiveness of an intervention. I found the PICO an efficient way to search the databases. Previously I have searched using a much less structured method, which in hindsight overwhelmed me with the vast number of results and evaluating them was time-consuming. I also found the results of my search using PICO far more relevant to what I was researching. I did find initially forming the clinical question challenging as it would seem the key to the process leans heavily on the generation of a concise, clear clinical question. Once I had