Objective:To develop an inquiry learning community centered on learning experience in the course of Nursing Clinical Comprehensive Experiment to verify the influence of this teaching mode on the learning gains and practical ability of nursing students. Methods:A total of 132 undergraduate nursing students form grade 3 in Chongqing Medical University were enrolled. The participants were randomly assigned to a learning community group ( n = 69) and a control group ( n = 63) using Minitab 14.0 software. The students in the learning community group adopted the inquiry learning community mode in accordance with the curriculum map for online self-learning, group discussion and skills practice, while the control group received the teacher-led teaching mode for offline theory teaching, operation teaching and skills practice. After the teaching intervention, both groups of students received the assessment questionnaire of learning gains and the comprehensive experimental ability evaluation. Chi-square test or paired t-test was performed using SPSS 23.0. Results:Compared with the control group, students in the learning community group reported that their sense of learning gain was enhanced ( P<0.001, Cohen d=0.97); sub-items showed that the effect size for the understanding of learning content ( P<0.001, Cohen d=1.22), the overall course situation ( P<0.001, Cohen d=0.90), the course activities ( P=0.000, Cohen d=0.83), and the information obtained ( P<0.001, Cohen d=1.16) was significantly different. The total score of practical ability of comprehensive experiment was significantly improved ( P = 0.005, Cohen d=0.51), in which the experimental situation displays ( P=0.002, Cohen d=0.55) and experimental effect ( P=0.006, Cohen d=0.49) were better than the control group. There was no significant difference in the performance of experimental preparation and case analysis between the two groups. Conclusion:Developing an inquiry learning community in nursing clinical comprehensive experiment can effectively enhance student' sense of learning gains and promote the improvement of clinical practical ability.