Text network analysis of research topics and trends on global health nursing literature from 1974 -2017

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between keywords in existing global health nursing studies during 44 years (1974–2017) and to develop schematic diagrams of the relationship between these keywords from a macro perspective. It is to identify the trend of the literature in global health nursing field.

Design: A descriptive bibliometric analysis of publications in global health nursing.

Methods: The keywords from 7,115 articles and literatures were examined using the Text Rank Analyzer via the applied text network analysis with NetMiner 4.0.

Results: As for global health nursing, keywords with the most frequent appearance and the highest networking degree in centrality were 'study', 'patient', 'nurse', and 'women'. Six central keywords were also found highly related to other keywords: 'global health nursing', 'study', 'patient', 'care', 'nurse', and 'education'. By measuring the degree of keywords connected to other keywords in centrality, six clusters were established. Then, emerging topics assessed by time periods were identified as follows: the beginning phase ('breastfeeding', 'women', and 'children'), the development phase ('quality', 'life', and 'human immunodeficiency virus'), the maturation phase ('mental health', 'depression', and 'global health'), and the expansion phase ('pregnancy', 'palliative care', and 'infectious disease').

Conclusion: The identified trends on this study will help nurse leaders to grasp the trends and insights for global health and to train future nurses to serve clients better in the practice fields.

Impact: Keywords with the highest appearance and centrality in the network were found in the global health articles. The bibliometric analysis showed various subjects according to the following phases: beginning development maturation and expansion. The awareness of the trend change in the global health helps nursing researchers and educators modify the curriculum of global health nursing and train future nurses to be equipped with the global health competencies.