Halfpenny Alana, Huntley James S
Nursing, Queen's University, Kingston, CAN.
Orthopedic Surgery, Primary Children's Hospital, Salt Lake City, USA.
Cureus. 2024 Nov 25;16(11):e74406. doi: 10.7759/cureus.74406. eCollection 2024 Nov.
The role of nurse practitioners (NPs) has become integral to healthcare systems worldwide. Originating in the United States over 50 years ago, it has since been adopted by countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. To honor the research and contributions that have shaped the NP discipline, it is valuable to review and recognize key literature that has significantly impacted its development. Bibliometrics, a research methodology, offers an objective lens for evaluating the influence of scholarly articles on the evolution of a discipline. Citation analysis (CA), a key method in bibliometrics, examines how frequently a publication is cited by others, often serving as a measure of its impact, influence, and contribution to its field. This study aims to identify the top 50 most cited publications related to NPs in the Web of Science (WoS) database to review and describe the influential works that have contributed to the profession's growth. Comparisons are drawn with a parallel review in Scopus and recent NP-related bibliometric studies. In 2021, a structured search was conducted using the WoS Core Collection with key terms such as "Nurse Practitioner" and "Advanced Practice Nurse". Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, and publications were ranked by citation count from highest to lowest. The analysis covered citation counts, topics, publication dates/types, country of origin, author details (institution and discipline), and journal characteristics (e.g., impact factor, IF). The top 50 most cited articles and their characteristics are presented. Citation counts ranged from 78 to 656, with publication dates spanning six decades across 30 journals, 38 institutions, and 194 authors. The leading authors were Mary O'Neil Mundinger, Denise Bryant-Lukosius, and Alba DiCenso. Topics included the role's impact and development, registration/licensing, and scope of practice. Most articles (n = 35) were published in journals with an IF greater than 2. This review offers a systematic approach to identifying seminal works that have influenced the NP profession globally. While CA has its limitations, it provides a valuable method for literature review. This study contributes valuable insights into the history and development of NP research and offers guidance for future research efforts.
执业护士（NPs）的角色已成为全球医疗保健系统不可或缺的一部分。它起源于50多年前的美国，此后被加拿大、英国和澳大利亚等国家采用。为了纪念塑造NP学科的研究和贡献，回顾和认可对其发展产生重大影响的关键文献很有价值。文献计量学作为一种研究方法，为评估学术文章对学科发展的影响提供了一个客观视角。引文分析（CA）是文献计量学中的一种关键方法，它考察一篇出版物被其他文献引用的频率，通常作为其影响力、作用和对其领域贡献的一种衡量标准。本研究旨在识别Web of Science（WoS）数据库中与NP相关的被引用次数最多的前50篇出版物，以回顾和描述为该职业发展做出贡献的有影响力的著作。并与Scopus中的平行综述以及近期与NP相关的文献计量学研究进行比较。2021年，使用WoS核心合集进行了结构化检索，检索词包括“执业护士”和“高级执业护士”。应用了纳入和排除标准，并根据被引用次数从高到低对出版物进行排名。分析涵盖了被引用次数、主题、出版日期/类型、原产国、作者详情（机构和学科）以及期刊特征（如影响因子，IF）。列出了被引用次数最多的前50篇文章及其特征。被引用次数从78次到656次不等，出版日期跨越60年，涉及30种期刊、38个机构和194位作者。主要作者有玛丽·奥尼尔·芒丁格、丹妮丝·布莱恩特-卢科修斯和阿尔巴·迪森索。主题包括该角色的影响和发展、注册/许可以及执业范围。大多数文章（n = 35）发表在影响因子大于2的期刊上。本综述提供了一种系统方法来识别影响全球NP职业的开创性著作。虽然CA有其局限性，但它为文献综述提供了一种有价值的方法。本研究为NP研究的历史和发展提供了有价值的见解，并为未来的研究工作提供了指导。
