Objective To design a course for life-and-death education based on meaning in life for higher vocational nursing students and to explore the practical effects. Methods Fifty-six students in one class of Grade 2019 on a five-year higher vocational nursing education program were assigned to an experimental group and received a 16-week, 32-hour life-and-death education course, while 54 students in the other class were served as a control group and accepted no interventions.Meaning in life of the students in both groups were measured at enrollment and after completion of the course, and students in the experimental group were surveyed in terms of their cognition and satisfaction with the course. Results After the intervention, two dimension scores (purpose of life and will to meaning) and the total meaning in life score were significantly higher in the experimental group than those in the control group （P＜0.05,P＜0.01）.All students in the experimental group satisfied with the course, 98.2% satisfied with the teaching method, and 96.4% were willing to participate in life-and-death education. Conclusion Life-and-death education can improve the meaning of life of nursing students, and the course is highly accepted.