Objective To understand nursing researchers′ experience in informed consent obtainment process, to propose improvement strategies, and to provide references for regulating informed consent obtainment practice. Methods By using purposive sampling method, 20 nursing researchers were selected. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. All themes were identified based on the five-element theory， and the data were summarized by content analysis. Results The disclosure element included five themes（nature of research, research benefits, participants′rights, privacy protection and research risks）；the assessment of competency comprised three themes (assessment was based communication feedback, objective characteristics and scale scores respectively)；the participants′ understanding embraced one theme (variations in understanding), the voluntariness of consent had only one theme (consent was determined primarily by research participants themselves, and secondarily by family members);the views on the way of offering consent embraced two themes (verbal consent was more suitable for the participants, written consent was more in line with ethical norms). Conclusion There are many problems lying in informed consent obtainment process in nursing research. Nursing researchers′understanding of the informed consent obtainment process should be enhanced and some strategies for improvement should be formulated. More practical ethical standards for nursing research should be established by ethics committees.