Abstract: Objective To investigate the professional qualities which excellent doctors should possess from the perspectives of the nurses and lay the foundation for establishing the comprehensive evaluation criteria of excellent doctors. Methods Nominal group technique was used to investigate the nursing students in seven classes from four grades in Peking Union Medical College, and the semi-quantitative results about the central issue was obtained through the process of discussion, integration and scoring. Results Nine types of professional qualities was given beforehand: clinical ability, communication skill, collaboration, critical thinking of ethics, humane care, pursuit of excellence, responsibility, service spirit, integrity and honesty. Also participants added 10 new qualities in “other kinds ” after discussion : stress tolerance, self-management, professional pursuit, modesty and caution, personal health, decision of professional development, psychological quality, self-development, self-development and humanities culture. All the nursing students regard clinical ability as the most important one in the professional qualities. Humane care ranked the second compared with the clinical ability. Human care ranked second in four groups and third in one group, and responsibility got score in each group and ranked the top three in the seven groups. Conclusions From the perspectives of nurses, clinical ability, humane care and responsibility are in the front rank of the professional qualities excellent doctors should possess.

Key words: nurses, nominal group technique, excellent doctors, professional qualities