Objective To investigate the current status of clinical nursing risks to nursing students, so as to provide scientific references for medical universities and policy makers. Methods The self-designed questionnaires were distributed to 360 clinical nursing students in four Third-Level hospitals. The group leaders were trained as investigators regularly. All the other nursing students were asked to fill in the questionnaire alone within 30 minutes. The questions issued were the following four aspects: general information of nursing students, clinical intern operating situation, nursing defects and awareness of nursing risks. Results Among the total 400 questionnaires distributed, 360 valid ones were retrieved (90%). The analysis showed all 21 nursing operations could be performed by students alone, and 80% of the nursing students believed that they were able to do 11 routine operations alone, such as bed-making and vital sign monitoring. The incidence rate of eight nursing defects was between 0.56% and 12.22%. As for the four questions about nursing risks, 49.44% of the nursing students operated alone before getting themselves ready because of their eagerness for such experiences. According to the nursing students, the departments with the highest nursing risks ranked as emergency, operating theatre, surgery, pediatrics, internal medicine, and gynecology and obstetrics. Conclusion The current situation of clinical nursing risks to nursing interns is still far from being satisfactory, so it is necessary to improve the training at university, regulate the clinical education, and ensure the intern safety for nursing students.