The primary aim of a concept analysis is to carefully study, clarify, develop, and critically assess a particular concept (Smith & Mörelius, 2021), all to attain a more profound and detailed understanding of the concept.

Conceptual analysis is a means of clarifying or explicating and giving definition, dimension, and meaning to ordinary and obscure expressions (i.e., cultural, natural, or spiritual things, image, text, sound, etc.). To analyze is to explicate.

concept analysis from concept synthesis, "to extract or pull together concept(s) from a body of data or set of observations", and from concept derivation , "to shift and redefine concept(s) from one field to another" (2004:32).

This article is the first one in a series of three articles, which focus on methods of concept analysis and discuss how terminological concept analysis methods could be developed as more generally applicable research methods.

A concept analysis can be defined as the dissection of a concept into simpler elements to promote clarity while providing mutual understanding within nursing.1 If the researcher notes a lack of clarity surrounding the concept, a concept analysis should be undertaken to achieve a better understanding of the concept.