Like any other sphere of society, public health has many problems, including nursing or medical practice ones. In this case, the method of interaction with the patient is of particular importance. According to Lira and Rocha (2019), PICOT is a way of posing a question for a case, helping to formulate a clinical question and effectively solve a patient’s problem. Most people define a nursing and a medical practice problem as one whole, but there is a substantial difference between them.
Nursing practice problems are issues related to the patient’s care, their emotions, and attitude towards actual or potential health disorders. However, the medical practice problem is directly related to the diagnosis, identifying symptoms of the patient’s malaise. In this case, the doctor asks questions to determine the patient’s physical condition, investigate the necessary clinical indications, and choose the methods and timing of treatment. Thus, the nursing practice problem is related to the patient’s feelings, while the medical practice problem is related to the patient’s real state and physical symptoms.
As an example of a nursing or medical practice problem, one can consider the Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection known as CAUTI, which, according to Meddings et al. (2019), is one of the most pressing issues of modern urology. In this context, the nursing practice problem is to provide moral support to the patient. The nurse will clarify how the patient relates to this diagnosis, how worried they are and will take specific actions based on their answers. On the contrary, the medical practice problem is to help the patient heal the disease. To do this, the doctor will clarify the symptoms, and prescribe the necessary tests and medications. The doctor needs a complete picture of the real clinical signs to cure. At the same time, the nurse needs to help the person emotionally and, based on the doctor’s conclusion, provide medical care.
In this regard, it is essential that PICOT be based on a nursing practice problem since a person’s emotional state is no less significant than the physical one. It is crucial not only to bring the clinical indicators back to normal but also to help a person become mentally aware of this disease and understand what measures to take to heal and prevent it. Thus, the nursing practice problem, which is significantly different from the medical practice problem, acquires particular significance.
References
Lira, R.P.C., & Rocha E.M. (2019). PICOT: Imprescriptible items in a clinical research question. Arq Bras Oftalmol, 82(2). Web.
Meddings, J., Manojlovich, M., Fowler, K., Ameling, J., Greene, L., Collier, S., … Saint, S. (2019). A tiered approach for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection. Web.