Objective To explore the effect of ICARE-oriented teaching on cultivating humanistic caring ability of nursing undergraduates. Methods By using a draw lots, 164 undergraduate nursing students of Grade 2017 were served as the control group and received traditional teaching modality, while their counterparts (n=166) were treated as the experimental group and were given ICARE-oriented teaching. Humanistic caring ability and professional attitude were compared between the two groups at completion of the course. Results The experimental group showed better humanistic caring ability and professional attitude compared with the control group (P＜0.01 for both). Conclusion Integrating ICARE concept into nursing courses can not only strengthen humanistic caring ability of nursing undergraduates, but also improve their professional attitude. It is a concrete embodiment of ideological and political educationin teaching.