Research by Spanish emergency department nursing staff indexed in the CUIDEN database (2000-2005)

Amigó Tadín M

Objective: To ascertain the scientific output of Spanish emergency department nurses

with respect to numbers of articles and subjects studied, and according to the institutions,

provinces and autonomous communities where research is most promoted and

the journals in which it is being published.

Method: A document search was carried out using the CUIDEN database of the Index

Foundation and using emergency department as the key word. The years 2000 through

2005 were included in the search. Subsequently, the presence of these documents in

the databases accessed through PubMed was checked and their international scientific

impact was assessed using the ISI Web of Knowledge.

Results: A total of 124 Spanish original research articles were found. Staff from 2 or

more instititutions collaborated in 35.7% of the articles. Four or more investigators participated

in 55.3% of the articles. The first author came from a hospital in 67.2% of

the studies and a university in 12.3%. The most productive Spanish autonomous community

was Andalusia (31 documents) and the leading Spanish provinces were Madrid

and Barcelona, with 14 studies each. The most frequent subjects were quality (16.1%)

and analysis of the reasons for using the emergency department (8.1%). The 124 articles

were published in 34 journals, with Ciber-Revista (20.2%) being the one chosen

most often. Eighteen of the documents (14.5%) were also located by PubMed and 3

(2.4%) were published in journals with an impact factor.

Conclusions: Spanish emergency department nursing staff carry out research, but their

scientific production is low. In addition, the international scientific impact of the publications

is scarce, as most of the journals in which they are published are not indexed

in the most widely accessed databases.

Amigó Tadín M