Objective To investigate the effect of narrative education on emotional and clinical ability of baccalaureate nursing students practicing in ICU. Methods A total of 42 baccalaureate nursing students practicing in ICU between January 2016 and September 2016 were treated as the control group and received traditional teaching, their counterparts practicing in ICU between October 2016 and June 2017 were served as the observation group (41 cases) and subject to narrative education. The Self-rating Anxiety Scale(SAS),the Self-rating Depression Scale(SDS) were filled out by both groups before and after practicing in ICU, and assessed the comprehensive ability after ICU practice. Results The scores of SAS and SDS after practicing were (49.47 ± 12.37),(50.25 ± 11.86)points in the observation group and (54.32 ± 12.51), (55.79 ± 11.34) points in the control group, and the difference was significant(t=10.822, 12.310, P<0.05). The total scores and personal quality, theoretical knowledge level, clinical nursing ability, judgment thinking ability, communication and cooperation ability was (88.45 ± 13.54), (23.21 ± 4.73), (18.42±3.45), (17.91±3.62), (8.56±0.83), (8.34±0.67) points in the observation group , and (73.13± 11.35), (19.13±4.52), (15.45±3.21), (15.76±3.54), (6.17±0.19), (5.17±0.18) points in the control group, and the difference was significant (t=3.226-8.665, P<0.05 or 0.01). Conlusions The narration education can reduce the psychological burden of baccalaureate nursing students practicing in ICU and can improve the comprehensive ability of them.