NR585 – NP Week 2 Assignment: PICOT Worksheet

 PICOT Worksheet

Name: ………………..

General Instructions

1. Complete the PICOT Worksheet Template below using the scenario provided in the Week 1 announcements. Use of this template is required. If the template is not used, a 10% deduction will be applied. See the rubric. Save the template and include your name in the file name.
2. Follow APA grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation rules consistent with formal, scholarly writing.
3. Provide an in-text citation from three scholarly sources to support your writing.
4. Abide by Chamberlain University’s academic integrity policy.

1. Practice Problem
2. Using the practice problem identified in the Week 1 discussion, summarize your practice problem in 2-3 sentences.

DFUs pose a major problem to diabetic patients because of the risk of complications developing, the expenses of their treatment, and the lengthy time required to heal (Moore et al., 2021). The DFUs tend to be found in patients with neuropathy or peripheral vascular disease, which is characteristic of diabetes. These ulcers are known as chronic, and they mostly take more time to treat, recurrently and more chances of amputation. The health care systems are strained because of the complexity and severity of the DFUs, as well as the issues of preventative and effective management practices that would reduce the overall occurrence of DFUs and improve patient outcomes.

2. Explain why the issue/concern is important to nurse practitioner practice. Provide an in-text citation from one scholarly source to support your writing.

The timely administration of the DFUs is the key to the nursing specialist practice since it can be incorporated into the overall scope of preventing the emergence of complications and enhancing the quality of life and the overall well-being of diabetic patients. Nurse practitioners are in a strategic position to ensure that stroke is prevented, stroke survivors are managed, and healthy lifestyles are embraced by other individuals at risk of stroke because they are the first responders in the diagnosis and treatment of most chronic diseases. Thus, by introducing evidence-based intervention, comprising a structured diabetic foot care and prevention program, the nurse practitioners will increase the rate of compliance with the care plan by patients, reduce the risk of complications, and, as a result, lower the healthcare expenditures on chronic DFUs (Aldahmashi et al., 2024). The effectiveness of the amputation rates can be improved through optimal management of DFU, and this will have a beneficial impact on the lifestyle and health of patients with diabetes (Boyko et al., 2022).

1. PICOT Elements – Below are several of the PICOT elements to be discussed in a sentence or two:

P-Population – What is the nursing practice issue or problem, and to whom does it impact? Narrow down and be specific about your population. The client population should be client-centered. Include an in-text reference with reference to one of your sources of scholarship to help write.

The population that will be targeted in this research is related to adult patients who have diabetes and are at risk of developing DFUs. This group is characterized by patients who have had a history of foot ulcers, peripheral neuropathy, or any other complication with diabetes that predisposes the concerned patient to injuries and infections. Responding to a group of diabetic patients at risk of developing foot complications is an opportunity to address preventive measures, which enables nurse practitioners to offer very specific and effective care and reduce the level of severe complications and mortality among patients at risk (Franco, 2022).

I–Intervention– Which evidence-based intervention for the problem do you wish to use? Include an in-text reference with reference to one of your sources of scholarship to help write.

The proposed intervention is a diabetic foot care and prevention program that entails assessment of the foot, patient education on foot care, and interventions that lead to the best glycemic control. This is a comprehensive approach that includes many factors that are believed to be the causes of DFUs, such as peripheral arterial disease, diabetic neuropathy, and enhanced vulnerability to infections. The intervention will help decrease the risks of getting an ulcer, detect potential precursors as early as possible, and enhance the self-management skills of patients, thus reducing the overall rate of DFUs (Gomes et al., 2023).

C–Comparison– What is the alternative solution to the problem? This is normally the existing practice, an alternative solution, or nothing.

It is compared to the foot care education given to a diabetic patient under normal care. Normal care is often basic education about foot care and may not include a comprehensive enough part of a detailed approach to meet the needs of high-risk patients. This study will be used to determine whether a structured and comprehensive intervention to improve a DFU prevention program will yield statistically significant patient outcomes improvement over self-care education interventions.

O–Outcome– what will you do to determine the intervention was successful? What will be your measure of the outcome? The result should be quantifiable on a baseline.

The anticipated effect of the intervention is a reduction in the prevalence of creating DFUs among the study sample, at least. The success will be determined in terms of the new ulcers appearing, the shrinking of ulcers, and the speed of curing the ulcers. These measures provide quantifiable levels of short-term and long-term impacts of interventions in the management of diabetic foot. Good results would demonstrate the efficiency of the suggested program to prevent the further development of DFUs and the necessity of more complex interventions, such as surgeries or amputations.

T–Timeframe– What is the timeframe or the target date of completion?

It is also suggested that the intervention will require 12 months to determine the true trend in the change in the rate of developing and healing of DFUs. The period of one year is appropriate as it represents the time of intervention and also enables the implementation of follow-ups to help in evaluating the effects of the intervention in the long term, not to mention the evolution of patient outcomes.

1. PICOT (Practice) Question

Construct a standard form of a PICOT question: In diabetic adults (P), how is an extensive diabetic foot care and prevention program (I), versus conventional foot care education (C), related to the number of diabetic foot ulcers (O) in 12 months (T)?

• Follow the regular PICOT format and identify the elements.
• P-Population: diabetes patients who are adults.
• I-Intervention: complex program of diabetic foot care and prevention.
• C-Comparison: conventional foot care education.
• O-Outcome: diabetic foot ulcers.
• T-Timeframe: 12 months

1. Keywords

Find keywords concerning every element of the PICOT question that can be utilized to discuss a literature search. More guidance may be obtained by using Appendix B that is found in Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt (2023).

1. P = diabetic foot, patients with diabetes who are adults, neuropathy, high-risk populations of diabetics.
2. I = complete foot care program, foot care glycemic control, diabetic foot prevention, special footwear, frequent foot examination.
3. C = routine foot education, rudimentary foot hygiene.
4. O: incidence of diabetic foot ulcers, healing rates of ulcers, amputation prevention, and patient outcomes.
5. T = 12 months, one-year follow-up