RESUMO
Objective@#To comb the thread and trend of critical care fields in China for nearly 15 years, analyze research frontiers, demonstrate research evolution paths, provide reference for researchers and clinicians to carry out related work.@*Methods@#Using CiteSpace software and CNKI database to retrieve research literature about critical care from 2004 to 2018 in China for visual analysis.@*Results@#A total of 3 049 valid articles were retrieved. The research frontiers were mainly about emergency and critical nursing, nursing quality management, intensive care, clinical teaching quality and ICU nurses. Research trends from critical care, critically ill patients, disease condition change, to quality control, family members, nursing skills, basic nursing, now gradually turned to humanized care, nursing strategies, sustainable human care concepts, evolution map showed that emerging trend was more active.@*Conclusions@#In last 15 years, research fields of critical care in China have evolved actively, exploring research frontiers, focus on important topics such as evidence-based nursing,humanistic care nursing concept, intensive care information system, and cluster management strategy, extending and deepening professional development of critical care.