Bibliometric Analysis of 45 Years of Study History and Research Trends in Pediatric Oncology Nursing: Descriptive Study

Objective: Pediatric oncology nursing is celebrating its 45th anniversary. Nursing studies on pediatric oncology are rapidly increasing, but it is important to question whether they are moving in the right direction. For this reason, this study aimed to analyze pediatric oncology nursing studies' focus, thematic trends, and development. Material and Methods: This study was designed as a bibliometric analysis and conducted by examining 1,456 studies from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database on October 2, 2024. The graphical presentation and data analysis were performed using the software package Bibliometrix in R, VOSviewer, and WoSCC database. Results: Popular keywords in recent years are ''physical activity'' and ''symptom management''. Trend topics were ''end of life'', ''nursing care'' and ''fear''. ''Qualitative research'', ''childhood cancer'', ''family'', ''palliative care'' and ''care'' were the intensively and centrally studied topics. It was determined that the topics ''new diagnosis'', ''quality of life'', ''chemotherapy'', ''symptoms'', and ''nausea'' needed more study. The themes ''adolescents with cancer'', ''pain'', ''anxiety'', and ''virtual reality'' were the newly studied topics. Conclusion: This study's results will help researchers determine worldwide research trends in pediatric oncology nursing more systematically and understandably. We believe that these data from nearly half a century of nursing studies in the field of pediatric oncology will guide pediatric nursing researchers in planning future studies.