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Physician Assistant Resources

This guide will help you find books, journals, articles, databases and more for your physician assistant classes and projects.

What is Evidence Based Practice (EBP)?

Evidence-Based Practice is clinical expertise, best research evidence, and patient values

Evidence-based practice is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research." 

Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ. 1996;312(7023):71-72.

EBP Process

Evidence-based practice is also a process that begins and ends with the patient. 

Article Worth Reading: 

Spence J. D. (2020). The need for clinical judgement in the application of evidence-based medicine. BMJ evidence-based medicine, 25(5), 172–177. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2019-111300 

Using the PICO Framework - Foreground Questions

Step 0: The Spirit of Inquiry
Bell S. G. (2021). Step 0: The Spirit of Inquiry. Neonatal network : NN, 40(1), 38–39. https://doi.org/10.1891/0730-0832/11-T-686 

PICO is a widely-used acronym to assist in remembering the key components of a clinical question. There are additional letters and frameworks to help you formulate a question fitting your research. Not all parts of PICO are required! PICO is a framework to help you narrow your topic, not a rule.

When should you use PICO?

  • In academia when you are looking for evidence to support best practice
  • In practice when you have a question about patient care

Why should you use PICO?

  • Helps you form a focused question that will return relevant results
  • Helps you retrieve a manageable amount of results
  • Assists you in brainstorming keywords for your research
  • Saves time!

Other frameworks for formulating questions

  • PECOS: P= Patient/population E=Exposure C=Comparison Intervention O=Outcomes  S=Study Design
  • SPICE: S=Setting; P=Perspective; I=Interest; C=Comparison; E=Evaluation
  • SPIDER: S=Sample; P=Phenomenon of Interest; D=Design;  E=Evaluation; R=Research type
  • ECLIPSE: E=Expectation; C=Client group; L=Location; P=Professionals; S=Service of Interest

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and Practice (EBP)

A. How to search MEDLINE/PubMed using PICO. B. Create a well-built clinical question.

An online tutorial of the steps of evidence based practice using the PubMed search engine.