Global Trends and Hotspots in Nursing Research on Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems have been widely used in healthcare in recent years; however, there is lack of evidence on global trends and hotspots. This descriptive bibliometric study aimed to analyze bibliometric patterns of decision support systems in nursing. Data were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection. Published research articles on decision support systems in nursing were identified. Co-occurrence and co-citation analysis was performed using CiteSpace version 6.1.R2. In total, 165 articles were analyzed. A total of 358 authors and 257 institutions from 20 countries contributed to this research field. The most productive authors were Andrew Johnson, Suzanne Bakken, Alessandro Febretti, Eileen S. O'Neill, and Kathryn H. Bowles. The most productive country and institution were the United States and Duke University, respectively. The top 10 keywords were “care,” “clinical decision support,” “clinical decision support system,” “decision support system,” “electronic health record,” “system,” “nursing informatics,” “guideline,” “decision support,” and “outcomes.” Common themes on keywords were planning intervention, national health information infrastructure, and methodological challenge. This study will help to find potential partners, countries, and institutions for future researchers, practitioners, and scholars. Additionally, it will contribute to health policy development, evidence-based practice, and further studies for researchers, practitioners, and scholars.