Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effects of cooperative learning in the teaching of "bioethics" course in nursing undergraduates.Methods: One hundred and seventy-five nursing students from class A grade 2012(the experiment group) were divided into 23 cooperative groups,who were taught by cooperative teaching.One hundred and seventy-six nursing students from class B grade 2012 were set as the control group,who were taught by the traditional method(including lecturing and case analysis).The teaching effects in two groups were evaluated using the final summary evaluation and questionnaire.Results: The final summary evaluation scores in experiment group were significantly higher than that in control group(P< 0.01).The learning efficiency,communication ability,autonomous learning ability,making ethical decision ability and teaching satisfaction in experiment group were higher than those in control group(P< 0.05 to P< 0.01).Conclusions: Cooperative learning can improve the interest in learning "bioethics" course,autonomous learning abilities and teaching effects of nursing students.