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Forming answerable search questions using frameworks

A quick guide to introduce you to formulating a search question using PICO

PEO framework

The PEO framework is useful for building research questions that have a qualitative focus.

        P           ​

  Population and their problems​

  • how would you describe the patient or population of interest? ​

        E ​

  Exposure​

  • what has the population been exposed to?​

  • What have they experienced?​

        O​

  Outcomes or themes​

  • Outcome(s) of interest​

  • unlike in PICO, the outcome is almost always used in the search terms with the PEO framework​

Example:

 P          ​

 Population and their problems          ​

 Nurses​

 E​

 Exposure​

 Revalidation​

 O​

 Outcomes or themes​

 Attitudes, feelings, views​

 

Example question: What are nurses attitudes towards revalidation? ​

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