Capstone Project

[jjones0812]

Hello everyone...

I am in my last class at GCU and have chosen a PICO question only to find out in week 2 that it is not focused enough on a nursing problem. Can anyone provide suggestions as to how to tweak this question to make it more nursing focused? Here is my current question:

In patients (P), are pharmacological interventions (I) or non-pharmacological interventions © more effective in the prevention of venous thromboembolism (O) during hospitalization (T)?

The reason why I have to stick with this topic is that I have already gathered my research articles and have written a paper on this already. I was thinking that nonpharmacological interventions were nursing related. I'm kind of lost if anyone could help!

Thanks!!!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Your problem is due in large part to the fact that you are addressing preventing a medical diagnosis (thromboembolism) using pharmacological interventions, and this is not within nursing scope of practice; that's medical scope of practice and there's no way to change that.

What did your faculty tell you that had to be done, other than "make it more nursing-related"? I know you're probably really into this and are scared to death of having to start over, but hey. Can you look up PICOT and see if any of the bazillion examples you'll find strike your fancy?

[llg, PhD, RN]

Can you focus on the non-pharm measures (that fall within the nursing scope of practice) and ask a question on just that aspect? E.g. -- Which are most effective for a specific type of patient?

[kidsmom002]

Creating a good PICOT question is always the hardest part of the Capstone. Maybe you could word your PICOT more specifically? Such as choose a specific pharmacological intervention and compare it to a specific non-pharmacological intervention. I would also specify the time during hospitalization. Such as "by the end of the hospital stay" or something like that. Good luck :)

[Tisme]

In post-surgical patients admitted into the hospital, do non-pharmalogical methods of preventing venous thromboembolisms, compared to current prophylactic DVT treatments, reduce the incidence rate?

Examples: walking, turning, small excercises in bed, etc...

Good Luck,

Tis me

[jjones0812]

Thanks everyone for your help...I really appreciate it. I realize where I went wrong choosing a medical diagnosis. Instead of changing the whole PICO question I just made the interventions more specific to nursing as a few of you suggested (applying compression stockings, early ambulation, hydration) and my instructor accepted it. This was my first time posting to allnurses...I will definitely be using this forum more often. Again...thank you all for your help!