Objective To explore the current status of realist reviews in evaluating complex nursing interventions,so as to provide areference for the introduction of this method. Methods A scoping review was conducted using a systematic search of domestic and international nursing databases. The search time interval was from the inception of each database until March 2022. Two researchers independently screened and extracted data, and descriptive analysis and thematic analysis were used to organize the extracted results. Results A total of 47 articles were included, with 35 articles published in the latest five years. The research topics mainly focused on community/public health nursing and elderly care. Reports on the core process of project theory construction and improvement were insufficient in the five key steps:initial project theory construction, evidence search and selection, evidence evaluation, data extraction, and synthesis and analysis. Conclusion Realist reviews can reveal the mechanisms behind the effectiveness of complex nursing interventions. Domestic research should learn from the application experiences of foreign countries and standardize and improve the methodology to provide new perspectives for the development of nursing theory and practice in China.