Visual analysis of research status and development trends in the field of postgraduate nursing education.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to systematically analyze the research status and development trends in the field of postgraduate education in nursing through visual analysis.

Methods: We conducted a comprehensive online search of English literature via citation index extensions in the Web of Science Core Collection Database. Chinese literature was searched online via the CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and China Medical Biobank Databases. The literature on postgraduate nursing education, including 8986 English studies and 3589 Chinese studies, was searched from 2004 to 2024. COOC, VOS Viewer and Cite Space software are used as research and analysis tools to discuss the research trends and hotspots in this field.

Results: The Chinese and English databases contained 8986 and 3764 relevant articles, respectively. The amount of English literature was increasing annually, whereas the amount of Chinese literature was growing steadily. With respect to nations, organizations, and writers, the U.S. had the greatest number of English-language publications. That said, there were few collaborative efforts between writers or institutions, and there was no cooperative team centered on a particular institution or author; rather, research institutions were independent and decentralized. The most popular works in Chinese literature were clinical research directions such as curriculum thinking and politics, innovative teaching reform mode, core competitiveness, and cross-professional education. The hot topics in English literature were resilience, academic practice partnership, empathic capacity and other mechanisms.

Conclusion: The amount of international research was growing year by year, and the United States dominated the field, but a global network of collaborations had yet to be formed. The number of domestic research was growing steadily. There were differences in research hotspots at home and abroad. In the future, postgraduate nursing education needs to strengthen international cooperation, optimize curriculum Settings, promote teaching innovation, and pay attention to students' mental health, so as to improve education quality and students' comprehensive ability.