A Systematic Review of Nurse-related Social Network Analysis Studies

Background: Nurses frequently work as part of both uni- and multidisciplinary teams. Communication between team members is critical in the delivery of quality care. Social network analysis is increasingly being used to explore such communication.

Aim: To explore the use of social network analysis involving nurses either as subjects of the study or as researchers.

Methods: Standard systematic review procedures were applied to identify nurse-related studies that utilize social network analysis. A comparative thematic approach to synthesis was used. Both published and grey literature written in English, Spanish and Portuguese between January 1965 and December 2013 were identified via a structured search of CINAHL, SciELO and PubMed. In addition, Google and Yahoo search engines were used to identify additional grey literature using the same search strategy.

Results: Forty-three primary studies were identified with literature from North America dominating the published work. So far it would appear that no author or group of authors have developed a programme of research in the nursing field using the social network analysis approach although several authors may be in the process of doing so.

Limitations: The dominance of literature from North America may be viewed as problematic as the underlying structures and themes may be an artefact of cultural communication norms from this region.

Conclusions: The use of social network analysis in relation to nursing and by nurse researchers has increased rapidly over the past two decades. The lack of longitudinal studies and the absence of replication across multiple sites should be seen as an opportunity for further research.

Implication For Nursing And Health Policy: This analytical approach is relatively new in the field of nursing but does show considerable promise in offering insights into the way information flows between individuals, teams, institutions and other structures. An understanding of these structures provides a means of improving communication.