A bibliometric analysis of researches on intensive care unit physical environment from 2013 to 2017

Abstract

Objective To retrieve and analyze the related researches on intensive care unit (ICU) physical from 2013 to 2017, and to provide reference for further improvement of the physical and quality of medical and nursing care in ICU. Methods Relevant literature on ICU physical included from 2013 to 2017 by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) , Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, Sinomed, Pubmed, Web of Science, and Scopus database were retrieved and analyzed bibliometrically on the internal and external features of the articles by Excel and CiteSpace software. Results A total of 287 domestic and oversea papers on ICU physical were retrieved, the number of published articles showed an overall stable trend. The biggest number of published articles went to Guangdong Province, accounting for 14.1% of the articles in Chinese language. The United States had the biggest number of published papers in English language (43.8%) . Literature journals mainly focused on control, critical medicine and critical care nursing journals, with the largest number of articles published by a single author (23.0%) . The main types of research were clinical research (79.1%) , fund-supported literature accounted for 26.5% of all the articles, and research directions were mainly about (40.0%) , nosocomial infection and pathogenic bacteria , environment and premature infant and and development, sleep and noise were closely related. Conclusions The researches on ICU physical involves aspects including object surface, noise, light, air quality, temperature and ward design. Infection control in ICU and the influences of ICU physical on patient's biological rhythm and the growth and development of preterm infants are hot research issues in recent years. However, the geographical distribution of research is not balanced, and the overall quality of research evidence needs to be improved. Key words: Intensive care unit; Physical environment; Bibliometrics