Bibliometric analysis of literature on caregivers of surgical patients

The care of surgical patients is provided by nurses, family members, and paid caregivers who support the patient. It is observed that there are few studies in the literature addressing the care outcomes delivered by these caregivers together. Accordingly, articles in English available in the Scopus and Web of Science databases were reviewed. In this search, a bibliometric analysis was conducted using the keywords “nursing”, “surgical patient”, and “caregiver”. As a result of the search, 15 publications were identified in Scopus and 13 in Web of Science. The use of keywords varied between databases; while “human” and “caregiver” stood out in Scopus, “family caregiver” and “surgery” were the most frequently used terms in the Web of Science database. The countries producing the most publications were the United States, the Netherlands, China, and Australia. Examination of citation maps revealed a strong concentration in multidisciplinary journals. Although studies in this area are increasing in the literature, research remains limited, with ongoing gaps in multicenter and cross-cultural studies.