Correct Answer: A

The PICO framework is the standard format for formulating clinical research questions in evidence-based practice:

Letter	Component	Example
P	Patient / Population / Problem	Adult ICU patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia
I	Intervention	Oral chlorhexidine care every 4 hours
C	Comparison	Standard oral care (saline swabs)
O	Outcome	Reduction in VAP incidence rates

A well-formed PICO question guides literature searches, study design, and outcome evaluation. For qualitative questions, the framework is modified to PICo (Population, Interest, Context).