Mapping the literature of case management nursing.
OBJECTIVE
Nursing case management provides a continuum of health care services for defined groups of patients. Its literature is multidisciplinary, emphasizing clinical specialties, case management methodology, and the health care system. This study is part of a project to map the literature of nursing, sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. The study identifies core journals cited in case management literature and indexing services that access those journals.


METHODS
Three source journals were identified based on established criteria, and cited references from each article published from 1997 to 1999 were analyzed.


RESULTS
Nearly two-thirds of the cited references were from journals; others were from books, monographs, reports, government documents, and the Internet. Cited journal references were ranked in descending order, and Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied. The many journals constituting the top two zones reflect the diversity of this field. Zone 1 included journals from nursing administration, case management, general medicine, medical specialties, and social work. Two databases, PubMed/MEDLINE and OCLC ArticleFirst, provided the best indexing coverage.


CONCLUSIONS
Collections that support case management require a relatively small group of core journals. Students and health care professionals will need to search across disciplines to identify appropriate literature.
White
Pamela
P
University of Rochester Medical Center, Health Sciences Libraries and Technologies, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. Pamela_White@urmc.rochester.edu
Hall
Marilyn E
ME
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015706:Bibliometrics; D019090:Case Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006079:Government Publications as Topic; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012013:Reference Books; D013041:Specialties, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States