PICO Clinical Question:
For parents who refuse vitamin K for their newborns, will improving education on the importance of prophylactic treatment be more effective than not in decreasing the current refusal rate?
Parts of the PICO question:
P: for parents who refuse vitamin K for their newborns
I: will improving education on the importance of prophylactic treatment
C: be more effective than not
O: in decreasing the currant refusal rate of vitamin K
What is the importance of the PICO question?
The acronym PICO stands for population, intervention, comparison intervention, and outcome. In clinical questions using a PICO format is an effective tool to use for researching data. In this particular PICO question all four …show more content…
There is a limited amount of placental transfer of vitamin K, leaving infants with an inadequate amount. Vitamin K is made from intestinal bacteria and is absorbed from the foods we eat. Newborns are unable to get adequate amounts of vitamin K due to these reasons (“Notes from the field”, 2013). Newborns have an inadequate amount of clotting factors which puts them at risk of bleeding and hemorrhaging. This is another reason the outcome portion of this clinical question is important, by finding out if a decrease in refusal rate is achieved by improved education. The comparison data is important to evaluate whether the intervention is effective or not. For this question having the current level of refusal rate is needed to know if the intervention has an impact on decreasing the refusal rate of vitamin K …show more content…
Quality and safety are the responsibility of all healthcare workers. Obtaining evidence that supports the need for a change in policy or procedure will result in quality improvement (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2014). By obtaining evidence that supports the change needed will result in both improved quality and safety for newborns according to this PICO question. With a decrease in refusal rates of vitamin K administration will directly result in a decrease risk of bleeding and hemorrhaging in newborns. Evidence is the key component needed in making a change in policy.
Notes from the field: Late vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants whose parents declined Vitamin K prophylaxis—Tennessee, 2013. (2013). Retrieved