McKenna Lisa, Sommers Christine
School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.
Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Pelita Harapan, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Nurs Open. 2025 Sep;12(9):e70300. doi: 10.1002/nop2.70300.
Being a global profession, having evolved differently across different geographical areas, and with increasing global migration, nursing is well positioned to undertake comparative research to facilitate understanding and identify areas for development. Despite this, little is known about comparative research use in nursing, and there is little guidance for researchers on how to approach it. With increasingly sophisticated approaches, there is a need to understand how comparative analysis is currently being used.
To review nursing research using comparative analysis as a methodology, specifically exploring approaches employed and topics examined.
A scoping review of published nursing research was conducted using Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Proquest Central, Medline, and Directory of Open Access Journals, with no defined time limits applied and where 'comparative analysis' appeared in the manuscript title. Findings are reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews.
The search yielded 324 records from which 101 were included in the final review after titles and abstracts and subsequent full-text screening. Analysis was conducted on included studies, involving chronological distribution, publication location, study design, geographical distribution, nature of comparisons, analytic approaches adopted, and methodologists identified. The earliest study was published in 1958, and a steady increase was noted over recent years. While a majority were conducted in the United States, these approaches were used across a large number of countries. Comparisons were made across an extensive array of topic areas, and the emergence of contemporary approaches such as fuzzy logic and qualitative comparative analysis was noted.
The increase in studies using comparative analysis indicates its applicability for addressing nursing research questions. With growth in sophisticated comparative analysis approaches, there is a need for nursing research courses to include relevant educational preparation for novice researchers.
护理作为一项全球性职业，在不同地理区域有着不同的发展历程，且随着全球移民的增加，护理行业具备开展比较研究的良好条件，以促进理解并确定发展领域。尽管如此，对于护理领域中比较研究的应用了解甚少，并且对于研究人员如何开展此类研究也几乎没有指导。随着研究方法日益复杂，有必要了解当前比较分析是如何被运用的。
回顾将比较分析作为一种方法的护理研究，特别探讨所采用的方法和所研究的主题。
使用护理及相关健康文献累积索引、Proquest Central、Medline和开放获取期刊目录对已发表的护理研究进行范围综述，不设明确的时间限制，且手稿标题中出现“比较分析”。研究结果按照系统评价和Meta分析的首选报告项目扩展版进行报告。
检索共获得324条记录，经过标题、摘要及随后的全文筛选后，最终纳入101项研究进行综述。对纳入研究进行了分析，涉及时间分布、发表地点、研究设计、地理分布、比较的性质、采用的分析方法以及确定的方法学家。最早的研究发表于1958年，近年来呈稳步增长态势。虽然大多数研究在美国进行，但这些方法在许多国家都有应用。比较的主题领域广泛，并且注意到了模糊逻辑和定性比较分析等当代方法的出现。
使用比较分析的研究数量增加表明其适用于解决护理研究问题。随着复杂的比较分析方法不断发展，护理研究课程需要为新手研究人员提供相关的教育准备。
