Objective To explore the effect of link nurses guided working mode on the improvement of diabetic knowledge and skills in nurses and the nursing quality of clinical diabetic care. Methods The 433 N1 nurses and 67 patients who received training in 2015 were selected as control group; the 433 N1 nurses and 67 patients who were trained in 2016 were enrolled as observation group. The control group was trained with the diabetes specialist team core members guided mode, while the observation group used the mode guided by the diabetes link nurses. The results of the theoretical and skill assessment, the qualified rate of reaching nursing quality, and the qualified rate of patients health education were compared between the two groups. Results In nursing theoretical knowledge, the observation group (qualified rate of 95.2%) was better than the control group (78.5%), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). In practice skills, the qualified rates of the use of insulin and blood glucose meter of the observation group were 93.3% and 91.5% respectively, which were higher than those of the control group (61.7% and 67.2%), the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01). The qualified rates of nursing quality and patients health knowledge of the observation group were all higher than those of the control group, with statistical significance (P<0.01). Conclusions The working mode guided by diabetes link nurses can effectively increase the diabetes knowledge and skills and nursing quality in nurses who are not from endocrinology department.