Objective To explore the effect of peer education on the practical teaching of fundamental nursing for male nursing students .Methods Thirty-six male nursing undergraduate students from Grade 2011 were chosen as the observation group , and received the peer education .Thirty-two male nursing undergraduate students from Grade 2010 were chosen as the control group , and received the traditional teaching .The teaching effect was evaluated by the score of final examination and questionnaire in two groups .Results The scores of theory and practice test were respectively (57.68 ±4.34), (26.34 ±3.11) in the observation group, and were higher than (54.34 ±4.15), (24.58 ±2.93) in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (t=3.233,2.393, respectively; P <0.05).The result of questionnaire on the teaching effect showed that the professional identification , learning interest , self-confidence , communications and collaboration abilities in the observation group were better than those of the control group (P<0.05), and no differences were found in the abilities of operation, problem analysis and innovation between two groups (P >0.05). Conclusions Peer education can improve the professional identification in the male nursing students , and increase their learning interest and self-confidence , and improve their scores of theory and practice test in the fundamental nursing , and increase their abilities of communications and collaboration .