Where Are We the Ethics Education in Nursing? A Bibliometric Analysis.

Background: Professional ethical principles are fundamental to nursing practice, and ethics education is therefore embedded as a continuous component throughout nursing education. Objective: This study aims to present a bibliometric and scientific mapping analysis of nursing ethics education research. Methods: Web of Science and Scopus databases were searched for the keywords "ethic* education," "nurs*," and similar terms, and 514 documents published between 1964 and 2024 were analyzed. Bibliometric indicators were analyzed using the Bibliometrix package in the R programming language. Results: The analyzed publications were authored by 1,459 researchers and disseminated across 238 journals. The United States emerged as the most productive country, contributing 104 publications. An overall annual growth rate of 5.03% was observed, indicating a steady increase in scholarly interest in nursing ethics education. Conclusions: Research on ethics education in nursing demonstrates sustained academic attention alongside evolving thematic and methodological trends. Emerging technologies present new opportunities to diversify pedagogical approaches and strengthen the integration of ethics into nursing curricula. Implications for Nursing: Ethics education plays an important role in the formation of nurses' professional identity and in strengthening the patient-centered clinical decision-making process. Therefore, ethical values must be integrated into curricula and professional development programs at all levels.