Objectives: This study attempted to explore trends in domestic nursing research on ethical dilemmas over the past 20 years, derive major agendas through content analysis, and suggest the direction of future nursing ethics research. Methods: The data collection period was from June 1 to June 20, 2023, and a final 55 papers were selected through quality assessment of domestic academic journal papers published from 2000 to 2023 related to ethical dilemmas and analyzed for content. Results: Nursing research on ethical dilemmas appears to have increased intensively in the past decade since 2000, and was most often published in multidisciplinary journals. The research design and method focused on quantitative and descriptive research, and the majority of research subjects were nurses. As a result of content analysis, the main agendas of domestic nursing research related to ethical dilemmas are moral attitudes and coping behaviors by issue (19.0%), research subjects or historical background (18.4%), ethical issues related to death (16.7), ethical dilemmas (11.5%), This was followed by bioethics and ethical decision-making (11.5%), nursing ethics education (10.3%), research design and methods (6.3%), ethical dilemmas and job relevance (4.0%), and clinical ethics support services (2.3%). Conclusions: Future nursing ethics research needs to apply a multifaceted research methodology to various topics and subjects in each area without being biased. In order to manage nurses' duties in the nursing field, management of ethical dilemmas must also take precedence. Ethics education that helps them actively cope with various ethical dilemma situations and make ethical decisions through critical thinking, and reduces ethical conflicts and Ethics education is needed to develop appropriate and effective coping strategies. Furthermore, we should focus on creating a basic framework for creating an ethical environment, such as activating an ethics committee.