Abstract: Objective: To investigate the clinical nurses' performing frequency and importance rating of daily nursing tasks. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted, and 1 569 registered nurses working in different levels of healthcare institutions in Guangdong, Fujian province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were included in this study. Results: Among seven categories of nursing tasks, two of the most frequently performed activities were drug therapy related tasks and tasks on ensuring patients safety, and they both were rated as the most important by the nurses, followed by activities of taking care of patients and nursing assessment/evaluation. Ethical/legal tasks were performed with the lowest frequency but were rated with higher importance. Health education and communication/coordination were performed less and were rated less important as compared to tasks in other categories. Among the three items regarding teaching, research and management activities, teaching activities were performed with the highest frequency and were rated the most important, while research activities and management activities were performed less and were rated with lower importance. Conclusion: Drug therapy related performance, activities on ensuring patients safety, taking care of patients, and assessment/evaluation were the main tasks in clinical nursing care. Ethical/legal activities were well recognized by nurses, while sufficient time and energy were expected for nurses to perform health education and communication/coordination activities.