Objective To establish the norms for the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) for clinical nurses in China′s 3A general hospitals, and to provide references for assessing the self-compassion levels of clinical nurses. Methods Stratified random sampling was used to select clinical nurses from 3A general hospitals in six regions of China, including North China, Northeast China, East China, Central South China, Southwest China, and Northwest China, covering 16 cities. A general information questionnaire and the SCS were administered to establish the mean norms, percentile norms, boundary norms and categorical norms for the SCS among clinical nurses in China′s 3A general hospitals. Results A total of 3,920 clinical nurses were included in the study. The total average score of the SCS was (3.24±0.44) points, with the dimensions of self-kindness (3.39±0.62) points, self-judgment (3.14±0.66) points, common humanity (3.35±0.62) points, isolation (3.14±0.75) points, mindfulness (3.44±0.65) points, and over-obsession (2.97±0.75) points. Category-based norms were formed based on characteristic differences such as age, department, professional title, position, educational background, years of service, labor and personnel relations, and average monthly income. Percentile norms were constructed at 5% intervals, and boundary norms were established based on the 10%,30%,70%, and 90% percentile of the total score, with scores in the range ［3.81, 5.00) being high, ［3.38, 3.81) being relatively high, ［3.00, 3.38) being average, ［2.81, 3.00) being relatively low, and ［0, 2.81) being low. Conclusion The self-compassion level of clinical nurses in 3A general hospitals is average and influenced by various factors. Nursing managers can use these norms to assess the self-compassion levels of nurses and implement interventions targeting different influencing factors to enhance nurses′ self-compassion levels.