Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Virtual Reality Research in Nursing Education: A Bibliometric and Science Mapping Analysis

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has moved rapidly from an experimental teaching aid to a mainstream component of pre-licensure and continuing nursing curricula, yet the knowledge base underpinning this shift has not been mapped during its period of steepest expansion. This study analyzed the performance and conceptual structure of research on VR in nursing education indexed in Scopus between 2018 and 2024. A Boolean query retrieved 423 records; after removing ineligible document types and non-English items, 331 documents were retained and analyzed using Bibliometrix (Biblioshiny) for performance analysis, three-field analysis, and strategic thematic mapping, and VOSviewer for keyword co-occurrence networks. The corpus comprised 331 documents from 115 sources and 1,251 authors, with a compound annual growth rate of 37.32%, a mean document age of 2.69 years and 16.01 citations per document. Annual output rose from 17 documents in 2018 to 114 in 2024, with 58.3% of the corpus published in the final two years; ten journals carried 53.5% of all output, and international co-authorship reached 13.29%. Co-word analysis resolved four clusters: simulation-based nursing education; digital and immersive learning technologies; technology design and human-computer interaction; and engineering-oriented applied simulation. The strategic diagram showed a well-developed but insufficiently central core theme, low-density transversal themes, a small niche cluster, and no theme occupying the motor quadrant. The field is therefore expanding rapidly while remaining pre-consolidated, with outcome measurement concentrated at the simulation boundary rather than at transfer to clinical practice.