J Nurs Acad Soc.  1994 Mar;24(1):58-69.

A Statistical Study on the Key Words in the Titles of Nursing Related Theses

• Ko OJ
• Kim SH
• Kim HG
• Lee KJ
• Lee YS

Abstract

In order to see the development of Nursing related research activities in Korea over the last three decades, abstracts of almost all of the Master and Ph.D theses that appeared from 1961 up to August 1991 were collected. The number of theses was 2354, from which an index of key words has been constructed. Key words were defined as those terms in each thesis title that convey major objectives of the given thesis study and the important nursing concepts dealt with in the thesis. Although all the key words were picked from the thesis title only, full use was made of the abstracts in deciding the principal objectives and essential contents of the thesis studies and their important concepts as well. In total, 539 kinds of key words were identified from the 2354 titles, and the identified words were all found to be in the International Nursing Index. On an average each title has two key words. Which key words were most frequently used, how they have changed with time, what kind of concept is preferably dealt with by each graduate school, and the concepts to which a given key word is likely to be connected were examined. The results are summerized below: 1) For each decade the theses numbers were as follows: 54(2.3%) from the 60's, 413(17.5%) from the 70's, 1523 (64.7%) from the 80's, and 364(15.5%) from the 90's. Master's thesis contributed 96% (2252) of the papers and Ph. D's theses filled the remaining 4% (102). 2) A total of 539 key words were used, averaging about 2 for each thesis. The most frequently used key words were 'Nurse', 'Anxiety', 'Knowledge/Attitude/Practice', 'Stress/Stressor', 'Attitude', 'Job-Satisfaction', 'Mental Disorder', 'Operation', 'Elderly', 'Nursing Role'. 3) Each decades key words can be classified as: the 60's: 'Nursing Education', 'Pulmonary Tuberculosis', 'Mother-Child Health', 'Growth and Development', 'Public Facilities', 'Mental Disorder'; the 70's: 'Nurse', 'Family Planning', 'Attitude'/'Knowledge, Attitude/Practice', 'Curriculum in Nursing Education', 'Clinical Practice in Nursing', 'Analysis of the Work of the Nurse', 'Health Education of School',; the 80's: 'Nurse', 'Anxiety', 'Stress/Stressor', 'Operation', 'Nursing Role', 'Job Satisfaction'; the 90's: 'Nurse', 'Elderly', 'Family-Support', 'Stress/Stressor', 'Home Care'. Key word 'Nurse' appears continuously and most frequently through the years, which indicates that there has been active study of the characteristics of nurses and related fields. The concept 'Anxiety' has been studied steadly from the 80's and it shows that interest in health and disease are increasing which comes as a result of society changing to an industrial and informational community. 4) Looking into each graduate school's study area: key words 'Anxiety', 'Nurse', 'Mental Disorder', 'Stress/Stressor', 'Operation', 'Attitude', 'Hemodialysis', were studied in the regular graduate school: 'Family Planning/Contraception', 'Knowledge/Attitude/Practice', 'Physical Health-State/Physical Health Examination', 'Nurse', 'Using Clinical Facilities', 'Health Education of School', were studied in the Graduate School of Public Health'; 'Nurse', 'Anxiety', 'Stress/Stressor', 'Job-Satisfaction', 'Clinical Practice Education', 'Nursing Education', were studied in the Graduate School of Education; 'Nurse', 'Job Satisfaction', 'Nursing Role', 'Administration-Employmet/Employment Management', 'Leadership', 'Personnel Profile', 'Nursing Manpower/Changing Working Place', were studied in the Graduate School of Public Administration. 5) The Connection between key words were: 'Nurse <=> Job Satisfaction', 'Stress/Stressor <=> Coping/Ajustment', 'Nurse <=> Nursing Role', 'Anxiety <=> Giving Information', 'Nurse <=> Stress/Stressor', 'Anxiety <=> Operation', 'Nurse <=> Burnout', 'Knowledge, Attitude, Practice <=> Family Planning', 'Nurse Administration <=> Employment', 'Anxiety <=> Muscle Relaxation Technic', 'Anxiety <=> Mental Disorder'. From the above it can be noted that many nursing concepts were handled in the thesis titles. But there were more than enough papers on the characteristics of the nurse. It is suggested that in depth research be made on 'Nursing Accidents', 'Ethics', 'Nurse-Patient Interactions', 'Spritual Care', 'Dying', 'Hospice', 'Resident Helper' and that thre should be in depth research relating to the physical and mental development of youth and in particular physical concepts like 'Drug-Abuse', 'Child -Abuse and Teaching'.

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Child Health
Education
Humans
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Korea
Muscle Relaxation
Nursing*
Physical Phenomena
Statistics as Topic*