Objective Although graded nursing has been implemented in nursing homes since 2001 in China, it is not popu-lar.This research aimed to investigate factors of graded nursing implementation in nursing homes by subject analysis in order to provide a reference for the construction of graded nursing system in nursing homes . Methods We performed an analysis of data retrievals for grading nursing system in nursing homes from 2005 to 2015 based on five large databases: CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, and PubMed.Subject analysis was applied in the conclusion of retrieved literature . Results There were 993 related documents by pre-liminary selection and 21 documents were concluded for subject analysis .By document acquisition , code design , subject code search , integrated subject search and subject definition , five factors including policy , professional quality , institutional management , resource supply and individual were summarized . Conclusion These five factors give a correct and overall view of the facilitators and barriers to the implementation of graded nursing in nursing homes in China , which will contribute to its improvement .