Objective To analyze the international current status and hotspots of worldnarrative nursing, providing reference for Chinese scholars to carry out in-depth research in this field.

Methods Literatures related to narrative nursing were searched in the Web of Science database from the database established to May 16, 2021. CiteSpace software was used to analyze the literatures visually.

Results A total of 1 667 literatures were included. The annual number of papers from year of 1991to 2021 was on the rise. Umea University in Sweden had the largest number of papers (60 papers), forming a large-scale cooperation network with high-yield institutions, including Umea University, Mid Sweden University and Western Sydney University as its core members. DEBRA JACKSON, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Western Sydney, ranked the first in the number of papers published. The top 10 keywords were "nursing""nurse""narrative""experience""care""health""education""perception""qualitative research" and "people". The keywords "nursing student"and "transition"have been emerging since the beginning of the narrative nursing research, and they would continue to be the research focus and hotspot in the future.

Conclusion The enthusiasm of international scholars for narrative nursing research continues to rise, but the research development among regional institutions is unbalanced, so scientific research cooperation needs to be strengthened. Meanwhile, domestic scholars should refer to the hot spots of international narrative nursing research, study narrative nursing education by the combination of colleges and universities continuously, systematically and scientifically, and build our narrative evidence-based nursing practice program based on the cultural background of our country through paying attention to the exploration research on common psychology of all kinds of people in the transitional period after a certain emergency.