Running head: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVIDENCE 1

Difference between the Internal and External Evidence in Relation to PICOT

Search Strategy

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05/10/2015
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVIDENCE 2

The PICOT search strategy is the scientific process that is used in nursing and healthcare

management to search for evidence of an existence of a given health situation within a

community. The search strategy follows the Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) that will give rise to

the establishment of a fact on the occurrence of a health situation within the community

(Malloch 2006). The PICOT analysis carried out by the health officers is supposed to give rise to

the two main types of evidence, namely; the internal evidence and the external evidence.

Internal evidence is evidence that is applied in diagnostic reasoning, such as practice data

found in a healthcare record. External evidence is found in randomized control trials and

scientific research. The internal evidence associated with PICOT is the facts attributed to the

individual members of the society. The evidence entails a collection of information from the

members of the society concerning the occurrence of a given health situation in the society. The

mode of collection of the information involves asking the individual members of the society,

how they feel about a certain health situation (Levin & Feldman 2012). Therefore, the internally

based evidence seeks to get answers from the members of the society. The health officers apply

the PICOT in terms of inquiring from the population, designing an intervention, comparing the

information and analyzing the outcome within a given time frame.

On the other hand, the external evidence is the evidence collected from the environment

and then related to the health situation within the society. In most cases, the environment where

individuals live contributes a lot to the health situation of the community (Melnyk & Overholt,

2011). Therefore, the health officials will visit different environmental zones, carry out the tests

on the population and come up with a resolution. In this case, no questions are asked of the

population. The health officials just collect the data from the environment and compare them

with the health status of individuals in the society.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL EVIDENCE 3

Databank and search engines are parameters derived from both the internal and external

evidence and stored in computers and library. Databank, Medline and Cinahl are stored data

stored information for future use. Search engines depicts the results that can be associated with

an information and an inference can be made where the symptoms become familiar with those

that are provided in the store. The strength of this kind of information is that they are easy to

find. One only needs to have access to the internet and can read all the required information. The

weakness related to these kind of information is that they are not totally dependable. Sometimes

changes on environmental condition may lead to similar symptoms related to those recorded in

the internet. When a clinical officer relies on this information, he may end up making a huge

loss.

References

Levin, R., & Feldman, H. (2012). Teaching Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing (2nd ed.). New

York: Springer Pub.

Malloch, K. (2006). Introduction to evidence-based practice in nursing and health care.

Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett.

Melnyk, B., & Overholt, E. (2011). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to

best practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.