Objective To investigate the current status of volunteer service for nursing students in medical colleges and universities in Beijing, and to provide basis for construction of a better volunteer service system and service model for nursing students. Methods A total of 1 077 nursing students from 4 medical colleges and universities in Beijing were conveniently selected to fill out an internet survey in terms of volunteer service. Results As high as 1 059 (98.33%) nursing students in Beijing′s medical colleges and universities had participated in volunteer service activities. Respectively, 810 (76.49%) and 742 students (70.07%) agreed or very agreed that volunteer service could enrich their professional knowledge and skills; 743 students (70.16%) believed that volunteer service was most or fully related to their major; 931 students (87.91%) considered their university′s management mechanism for college students′ volunteer service as relatively/very effective. However, only 11.80% of them signed agreements for volunteer service every time, and only 9.82% and 6.80% reported that the volunteer service they had partaken in provided insurance and subsidies every time. Conclusion Volunteer service have positive influence on nursing students, but the content of volunteer service needs to be enriched, the guarantee of volunteer service was deficient, and the training system of volunteer service needs to be improved. Measures should be taken to establish a standardized guarantee and incentive mechanism, which could effectively push forwards volunteer service of college students.