Objective To demonstrate the research hotspots and trends of readiness for hospital discharge at home and abroad in the past 20 years, and to provide a reference for related research and clinical practice. Methods CNKI and Web of Science Database were searched from January 2002 to December 2021 for retrieving literatures related to readiness for hospital discharge. And then VOS viewer was used and visualized to speculate hotspots and frontiers in this research field. Results A total of 626 native articles and 512 foreign articles were included in the final analysis.The domestic research hotspots were enhanced recovery after surgery,demand and self-management,assessment and influencing factor analysis,discharge teaching and health education.The four research hotspots abroad were discharge criteria, RHD-related risk for adverse post-discharge outcomes, influencing factors,assessment and discharge teaching. Conclusion Domestic and foreign research hotspots overlap and make a difference. For the same hotspot, domestic research lags behind abroad, but the focus of the research is different. In the future, researchers should focus more on innovation management of discharge service, so as to improve discharge readiness.