About Chinese Journal of Nursing Education

Chinese Journal of Nursing Education

The Chinese Journal of Nursing Education (中华护理教育) is a Chinese-language academic journal devoted specifically to the education and training of nurses. It was established in September 2004, is sponsored by the Chinese Nursing Association, is published in Beijing, and carries the ISSN 1672-9234. As described on its official journal site, it mainly reports the leading scientific research achievements and teaching experience in the field of nursing education, as well as nursing theory research that has a guiding effect on nursing education. It is a source journal of the Chinese Science Citation Database, is available in print and online, and publishes at home and abroad.

A journal devoted only to nursing education was a new kind of publication for China when it appeared in 2004. General nursing journals had always carried teaching articles, but the rapid expansion of nursing programmes — in universities, vocational colleges and hospital-based training — created a specialist audience of nurse educators who needed their own forum for curriculum research, teaching methods and training policy. The Chinese Journal of Nursing Education was founded to be that forum, and it remains the national specialty title in its field.

Founding and History

The journal's own account dates its establishment precisely: it was founded in September 2004. Its volume numbering confirms the continuity of the run since then — volume 23 appeared in 2026, exactly the sequence expected from a 2004 start with one volume per year. Issue numbering within recent volumes runs to at least ten numbers a year, consistent with the monthly rhythm of the journal's editorial operation, which includes a monthly editorial meeting.

The founding coincided with a period of reform in Chinese nursing education, as bachelor's and graduate nursing education expanded and questions of curriculum, competency and clinical placement moved to the centre of professional debate. The journal's archive tracks those debates: reform of nursing education theory, innovative training models for nurses, the standardisation of clinical teaching, and, more recently, faculty development under national initiatives for world-class disciplines. Each phase of Chinese nursing-education policy since 2004 has left a corresponding literature in its pages.

Sponsor, Publisher and Editorial Operation

The journal is sponsored by the Chinese Nursing Association, China's national professional association for nurses, and published from Beijing through the association's nursing journals publishing operation. Association sponsorship gives the title a national rather than institutional character: its contributors and readers come from nursing schools, hospitals and health authorities across the country, and its content addresses the education system as a whole rather than a single university's programmes.

Its editorial processes are described on the journal's official site. Manuscripts are sent to two or more expert reviewers who must not be affiliated with the contributors' institutions, and the journal follows a double-blind review process in which reviewers and authors are unaware of each other's identity. Final decisions are taken at a meeting held monthly in Beijing or elsewhere, attended by the editor-in-chief and editorial board members. Manuscripts must be submitted to the journal alone and must not have been published, simultaneously submitted or accepted elsewhere — standard scholarly publishing requirements that the journal states explicitly for its authors.

Aim and Scope

The journal states its purpose in its official description: to implement the principles and policies of the Chinese Communist Party and the state in the health field, to focus on nursing education, continuing education and patient health education, and to promote academic exchange in nursing at home and abroad. Within that frame, its scope covers the theory and practice of educating nurses at every stage — undergraduate and vocational education, graduate education, clinical teaching and internship, continuing professional education for practising nurses, and the health education that nurses deliver to patients.

Recent content illustrates the breadth of that scope. A 2026 issue (volume 23, issue 10) carried an analysis of the secondary disciplinary classification of nursing science; a study of the compatibility of competency evaluation systems for undergraduate clinical nursing faculty under the "New Medical Education" context, based on systematic searching of Chinese and international databases; a five-dimensional model for nursing faculty development under the Double First-Class Initiative constructed at the Xiangya School of Nursing of Central South University; a career growth system for nursing faculty at local medical universities; and a study of the professional development of nursing teachers in Finnish vocational education and its implications for China. Faculty, curriculum, evaluation and international comparison — the journal's core concerns are all represented in a single issue.

Curriculum and Teaching Methods

Curriculum and pedagogy form the journal's central territory. Its founding description highlights teaching experience alongside research achievements, and its pages carry studies of curriculum design, teaching reform, simulation and skills training, and the organisation of clinical practice placements. Research on the disciplinary structure of nursing itself — such as the 2026 analysis of secondary disciplinary classification based on enrolment data and departmental construction — supports the curriculum debate by clarifying what nursing programmes are expected to teach and how the discipline is organised within universities.

The journal's treatment of clinical teaching deserves particular note, because the clinical placement is where nursing students become practitioners. Articles examine the competencies of clinical nursing faculty, the evaluation of teaching in clinical settings, and the interface between schools and hospitals. For nurse educators responsible for placement quality, this literature provides both evidence and models drawn from institutions across China.

Continuing Education and Patient Health Education

Two parts of the journal's stated mission extend beyond initial training. Continuing education addresses the lifelong learning of a nursing workforce whose knowledge must keep pace with changing clinical practice; the journal reports research and experience on in-service training, specialist nurse development and the structures through which hospitals maintain competency. Patient health education — the teaching nurses do with patients and families — is likewise within scope, reflecting the Chinese nursing profession's understanding that educating patients is a core nursing function rather than an optional extra.

Together, these strands make the journal useful to hospital nursing departments and training centres as well as to universities. A nurse educator in a tertiary hospital designing a continuing-education programme, or a clinical department standardising its patient teaching, is as much a part of the journal's audience as a university lecturer.

Indexing and Recognition

The journal is a source journal of the Chinese Science Citation Database, as stated in its official description — inclusion in that database marks it as one of the scientifically significant periodicals of China. It has also been recognised within the Peking University core journal system: the 2020 edition of the Overview Catalogue of Chinese Core Journals added the Chinese Journal of Nursing Education as a new entry among the nursing titles, bringing the total number of nursing-related entries in that prestigious category to seven. For a journal founded only in 2004, admission to the core list represented a significant mark of arrival.

Its articles carry DOIs under the prefix 10.3761/j.issn.1672-9234, as visible in its 2026 issue listings, giving each paper a persistent identifier and supporting citation tracking in Chinese and international databases. The journal is distributed in print and online and is published both at home and abroad, according to its official description.

International Exchange

Promoting academic exchange between China and other countries is an explicit part of the journal's purpose, and its content reflects that aim. Comparative studies — such as the examination of nursing teacher professional development in Finnish vocational education published in 2026, and comparative work on nursing accreditation and education systems — bring international models into the Chinese debate, while the journal's own English-language web presence, with English titles and abstracts for its articles, makes Chinese nursing-education research visible abroad.

This two-way exchange matters because Chinese nursing education operates at a scale unmatched elsewhere: the questions its educators study — mass undergraduate education, faculty shortages, standardisation across hundreds of institutions — are of interest to nursing educators internationally, and the journal is the primary channel through which that experience is published.

Readership and Use

The journal's readers are nurse educators in universities and vocational colleges, clinical teaching staff in hospitals, nursing administrators responsible for training, graduate students in nursing education, and policy researchers. Authors should note its stated requirements: exclusive submission, double-blind peer review by at least two external experts, and final decision by the editorial board meeting. Readers identifying the journal should use its exact credentials — Chinese title 中华护理教育, ISSN 1672-9234, sponsored by the Chinese Nursing Association, Beijing — to distinguish it from the association's general nursing title, the Chinese Journal of Nursing, and from other Chinese nursing-education periodicals.

Conclusion

Established in September 2004 under the sponsorship of the Chinese Nursing Association, the Chinese Journal of Nursing Education (ISSN 1672-9234) is China's specialist journal for the education of nurses. With its focus on nursing education research and teaching experience, continuing education and patient health education, its recognition as a Chinese Science Citation Database source journal and a Peking University core journal, and its active programme of international comparison, it is the essential periodical for anyone studying how China trains its nursing workforce.