Objective To understand the current working practices of enterostomal therapists (ETs) in China and to explore their future career development direction. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted on 103 ETs. Results Eighty six of them worked in clinic, of whom 21 were full-time ETs; and the rest 17 of them were nursing managers. Twenty-seven of them had not participated in national continuing education program specific for ETs in the last 3 years, 20 of them had not published papers about stoma in the past 3 years, and 15 of them had never participated in scientific research regarding stoma care. Incontinence care service accounted for 8.33% of their total workload, wound care for 43.80%, and stoma care for 47.87%. Conclusion Career development imbalance was presented in ETs, and a part of them did not engage in full-time stoma care. They need more support in clinical practice, academic ability promotion, and scientific research training. Meanwhile, the management mechanism, training mode, and practice mode should be reformed, to promote development of ETs.