The members of the team consisted of college librarians and nurses from different disciplines with different knowledge bases regarding EBP and research.  To add to the knowledge confusion the question at hand not only belonged in the field of nursing but involved other disciplines chemistry and mathematics.  Language issues do not have to be a result of speaking a different language but can stem from different meanings of the same word.  Early in the process we discovered that knowledge confusion due to language was a major stumbling block to our advancement in even the basic step of developing our PICO question.  Common terms for teaching mathematical processes to reduce medication errors to students were confusing and numerous. 

After several meetings in which attempts were made to begin investigation of the issue, it was clear that the group needed to redirect the aim to better understanding of the language and terminology.  To do this the group members focused on developing list of synonyms for certain key terms used in the PICO statement and in research searches.  Another important step was the development of shared sets of explicitly defined terminology.

See more of Implementing EBP in an Educational Setting: A Team Approach
See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)