Objective To construct a nephrology nursing knowledge graph and explore its application effect in the clinical teaching of undergraduate nursing students in the nephrology department.Methods A convenience sampling method was adopted. A total of 120 undergraduate nursing students interning in nephrology department from July 2023 to April 2024 were selected, those who interned in odd months were assigned to a control group, and others interned in even months were divided to an experimental group, with 60 students in each group.The control group received conventional clinical nursing theory and practice teaching, while the experimental group additionally used the knowledge graph in theory teaching.Both groups interned for 4 weeks.At the end of the teaching, the theoretical and operational examinations were conducted, and the self-directed learning ability of the two groups were investigated.Results After the teaching, the theoretical and operational examination scores, the total score and each subscale score of self-directed learning ability in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group （all P＜0.05）.Conclusion Implementing nephrology nursing theory teaching based on a knowledge graph for nursing interns is conducive to improving the teaching effect and their self-directed learning ability.