Debriefing in Healthcare Simulation: A Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: Debriefing facilitates the expression of actions and the rationale behind them, helps the students to correct their mistakes, and improves their knowledge and skills. This study aimed to provide a bibliometric analysis of the publications on debriefing and simulation that were indexed in the Scopus database. Methods: The bibliometric analysis method was used to analyze relevant Scopus-indexed documents. The publications analyzed in the study were retrieved from the Scopus database using the keywords “debriefing” and “simulation”. Bibliometric analysis was used to classify the articles according to country, journals, keywords, and other parameters. Results: The search produced a total of 326 publications. The articles were mostly published in nursing journals. Thematic analysis of the keywords revealed six themes and 33 keywords. Nine of the ten most cited publications provided information about debriefing session standards. Conclusion: The publications with the keywords debriefing and simulation appeared in 2004, and the annual increase in these publications indexed in the Scopus database indicated an increase in productivity. The publications mostly appeared in journals of nursing. The keywords used followed the publications' aim and content, mostly related to debriefing and nursing students. The most cited publications provided guiding information for conducting the process of debriefing.