Objective To explore the motivation and experience of nursing students participating in the nursing track of the Chinese College Students Medical Skills Competition. Methods A total of 17 nursing students from two medical universities in Guizhou Province and Chongqing who participated in the competition preparation were recruited for semi-structured interviews from March to May 2021. Data were analyzed by Colaizzi analysis method. Results Seventeen students were interviewed for total 893 minutes,and the transcribed words were more than 158 thousand words. Two themes emerged from the data：participation motivation（improving ability,proving strength,responding to mobilization and being influenced by role models） and growth experience（enhancing professional self-confidence,improving professional ability,changing professional attitude,clarifying career development direction,correctly understanding themselves and increasing friendship）. Conclusion Students have various motivations for participating in the skill competition. They believe that their comprehensive ability has been improved and changed in various aspects during the preparation process. Nursing educators should take the skills competition as an opportunity to organize students to actively participate to learn in competition.