A Scientometric Overview of the Current Status and Trends of Holistic Nursing Studies

Abstract

Holistic nursing care, which has been discussed a lot recently, provides better quality and more effective patient care. This study was planned to analyze the studies conducted on holistic care, by using the bibliometric method and to reveal which types of studies are needed to increase the effectiveness of holistic nursing care and to make it more widespread. The study has the potential to guide scientists who would like to work on this subject. This study describes the current published evidence about holistic nursing between January,1, 1979 and March 18, 2023. The study's data obtained from the Web of Science (WOS) database were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The Excel program was used to analyze the study's data, and VOSviewer was used to visualize it. A total of 3887 publications (reviews and articles) obtained in the search for holistic nursing have been published. A total of 2716 (69 875%) of all publications on holistic nursing were published since 2013, and these publications were cited 45 843 times, and 77.832% of all citations were cited to publications published since 2013. The top 5 countries that made the highest number of contributions were the United States (1259 documents), England (457 documents), Australia (380 documents), Canada (253 documents), and Sweden (183 documents). The University of London in England was the top institute focused on holistic nursing. Holistic nursing is a growing and developing subject, especially considering the number of citations and publications in the last 10 years. Most research and cooperation has occurred in a few developed nations: America, Australia, and European countries.