Uncovering Research Themes in Simulation-Based Critical Care Education: A Bibliometric and Cluster Analysis.
Lang Li, Yuhang Lv, Liang Dong
PMID 41906913WHAT IT FOUND
Research on critical care simulation has grown steadily, focusing on five areas: acute care outcomes, curriculum development, patient safety and teamwork, procedural skill acquisition, and learner confidence.
The United States leads publication volume, while collaboration networks remain strong.
Key findings
01Keyword cluster analysis identified five main themes in critical care simulation research: simulation and outcomes in acute care, competence and curriculum development, patient safety and teamwork, skill acquisition and clinical training, and education, confidence and perceptions.
02The United States contributed 44.9% of the total publications (250 articles), followed by Canada (7.9%) and China (6.6%).
03Recent citation bursts indicate a growing focus on high-fidelity simulation, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and quality improvement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study relied solely on the Web of Science Core Collection, potentially excluding relevant literature indexed in other databases like Scopus or PubMed. Only English-language publications were included, which may bias the results toward English-speaking research communities and underrepresent global contributions. Bibliometric analysis uses citation counts and metadata, which may not fully reflect the clinical impact or quality of individual studies. The analysis did not manually curate data for specific diseases or simulation techniques, limiting the granularity of subgroup findings.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by various Chinese government and university research foundations, including the Natural Science Foundation of China.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this paper as evidence that simulation improves patient outcomes. It is a bibliometric analysis that maps what has been published, not a clinical trial or systematic review that measures the effectiveness of the interventions described.