Trends of concept development in nursing published in Korean journals

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify trends of nursing concept development in Korean journal papers to improve accurate understanding of nursing concepts. Methods: A systematic review of 216 concept development articles published from 1970 to 2018 that met the inclusion criteria was conducted using Research Information Sharing Service (RISS) databases. Results: The most common method of concept development was Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method, identified in 139 (64.3%) of the 216 studies, followed by 48 examples of hybrid models (22.2%) and 15 examples of evolutionary methods (6.9%). Chinn and Kramer’s method, Norris’s clarifi-cation, Wilson’s method, and others were also used. The concepts of “spirituality” and “fatigue” were most frequently analyzed. Among the 139 studies that used Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method, 127 studies (91.4%) applied all the recommended steps; the others applied the recommended steps partially, omitting description of model cases/additional cases, antecedents/consequences, and empirical indicators. Among the studies using the hybrid model, among two (5.7%) did not describe attributes, three (8.5%) did not provide definitions, and 16 (45.7%) did not present empirical indicators in the final stage. Conclusion: Among concept development studies published in Korean journals, Walker and Avant’s concept analysis method is most commonly used. In case of most studies using Walker and Avant’s method a suitable concept analysis process is applied, but in case of other studies using the other concept development method, a suitable concept analysis process is not applied. Therefore, a suitable concept analysis process must be applied for concept development in nursing research.