An application of co-word analysis for revealing research themes and trends in China's nursing college education in recent 10 years / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the evolution of research themes and trends in China's nursing college education during the last decade.Methods A co-word analysis of keywords was performed in the research literatures around nursing college education from two Chinese databases,VIP China Science and Technology Journal Database and CKNI Periodical Full-text Database,between 2003 and 2012.The analysis was based on two different periods (phase Ⅰ from 2003 to 2007 and phase Ⅱ from 2008 to 2012).Results A total of 646 articles were included,with 287 articles published in phase Ⅰ and 359 articles in phase Ⅱ.Sixteen high-frequency keywords were identified during the phase Ⅰ,with seventeen during the phase Ⅱ.Two research themes,nursing student-training model and construction and reform of curriculum,were presented in both phases.However,some differences in research sub-themes exited between phase Ⅰ and phase Ⅱ.Conclusions Hot research topics in nursing college education seemed no change in the past ten years.School-hospital collaboration newly emerged as a hot topic in the field of nurse education research.The research on construction and reform of curriculum change its focus to nursing courses and humanities courses.The academic studies of nursing college education were mostly influenced and pushed by reforming and developing of nursing education.