PICO paper instructions

DIRECTIONS

Think about a question or approach to patient care for a specific type of patient pertinent to the population of the course, i.e., a patient with schizophrenia and medication non-adherence.

The PICO method can help you formulate a specific question and guide your library/literature research.

The PICO method is short for:

Patient or Problem:  For person with mental illness does specific medication teaching increase medication adherence? (This question has no comparison). After a library search, you may learn about motivational interviewing and change your question – for example: For persons with mental illness does specific medication teaching or motivational interviewing increase medication adherence? (This question has a comparison).

Process for developing the paper – RED and bolded items are important and/or required content for the paper.

• Review of the Nursing Literature. At least 1 article must be a PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH ARTICLE published in a NURSING JOURNAL. If you cannot find at least one nursing research article in a nursing journal select another topic. If there is no Nursing Journal utilized in the paper you will receive a grade no higher than an F. Your paper is required to have a minimum of 3 references, with at least 1 article being a PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH ARTICLE published in a NURSING JOURNAL. It is recommended to utilize Nursing Journals as references, since this is a nursing research paper.

• After examining the literature, formulate a thesis statement or question regarding nursing care for this type of patient or problem, usually about a nursing intervention or specific nursing role. A thesis statement/question must be included in the paper. The topic of this statement/question must relate to the persons (the population chosen).   

• Examine and describe how the literature guides your practice, supports the thesis statement, or answers the question. Be sure to clearly describe the literature used (literature review) and fully describe/report at least one research study/ article.

• Describe the role of the nurse in the intervention or specific nursing role you have selected with respect to providing care for the patient, population and/or the family.

• Describe how you would apply the intervention/information in your nursing practice, regardless of where you are working. Describe how you will utilize this information and or interventions in your practice after you graduate or as students. Be specific; describe exactly how you will use the information from the literature and/or what you will do, be creative and innovative with your answer and not use the practice that already is in place.

• Strive to insure that the information is pertinent to practice, well thought out and meaningful.

• The paper should be scholarly and in the correct APA format. The paper must have accurate documentation (APA utilized correctly – 6^th edition). All needed citations and quotations must be documented, not doing so constitutes plagiarism. Use the APA manual and when in doubt cite your source. Finish with an appropriate reference list; include current (within 5 years).

• Insure that it is organized and logical, includes an introduction and a summary and that the transitions are clear. Utilize correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.

• The paper will be 6-10 pages in length not including the reference page or face sheet.

When writing this paper use the following headings typed into your paper in APA format.

Thesis Statement

In this portion of the paper you will state your thesis. Begin the section with an introduction to the topic and finish it with your thesis statement. The last sentence of the paragraph will state your thesis statement.  This section is worth 2 points.

Nursing Researched to Support Thesis

In this portion of the paper you will summarize the literature you gathered.  You will analyze and synthesize the Peer- reviewed evidence based articles used to support your thesis statement. You will discuss how the articles support you thesis statement. The research articles need to be within 5 years and written by a medical professional and can be translated into nursing practice.          This section is worth 10 points.  No PEER-REVIEWED RESEARCH ARTICLE published in a NURSING JOURNAL – you will receive 0 points in this section.

Describes the Role of the Nurse in Implementing Interventions

In this portion of the paper you will describe how the role of nurse can be changed, or expanded to integrate the most current literature (described above) to provide safe, effective, patient-centered care. Be creative with how nursing can accomplish this.  This section is worth 3 points.

Describe how Interventions learned will be applied to YOUR Future Nursing Practice

In this portion of the paper you will describe how you will integrate this into your future nursing practice. Describe how the literature will guide your practice in the future with your patients. This section is worth 5 points.

APA Format

The paper must be in APA format with a title page, sources cited appropriately, and a reference page at the end. Please see APA current edition to make sure you know how to use APA.

Points for the paper will be based on the rubric that follows.  Read it carefully.