At first, I honestly saw PICO as just another assignment I had to get through, but during my clinical year, it actually started to change how I think about patient care. Instead of just going along with whatever plan was already in place, I found myself questioning things more and trying to understand why we were choosing certain treatments.

For example, in my renal colic case, the patient got IV morphine for pain, which is something I saw pretty often in the ED. But when I looked into it, I realized that NSAIDs like ketorolac can actually provide similar or even better pain relief with fewer side effects. That was kind of a turning point for me because it showed me that what we commonly do isn’t always the best option.

I also noticed this pattern in my other PICO topics, too, like antibiotics after I&D or imaging choices. A lot of times, the evidence wasn’t as straightforward as I expected, and it made me think more critically instead of just memorizing things for exams.

Another thing that helped me a lot was getting better at searching for actual high-quality evidence. Using PubMed and Cochrane made me realize how important it is to look for systematic reviews and RCTs instead of just random articles. It made me feel more confident in backing up my decisions with real data.

Overall, PICO helped me shift from just learning information to actually applying it. I feel like I’m starting to think more like a clinician now, where I question things and use evidence to guide my decisions instead of just going with what I see.