Objective: To explore the effect of the mind maping in the training of new nurses and the influence on the critical thinking. Methods: 92 new nurses were randomly assigned to a control group and an observation group. All nurses were trained by the same teacher for 2 weeks at the time of admission. The nurses of control group received a conventional therapy. The nurses of observation group were used the mind maping methods. After the training, the theoretical knowledge, operation capability and the ability of critical thinking were assessed, and the results of the two groups were compared and analyzed. Results: The score of theoretical and operation assessment in the observation group were better than that of control group（P<0.05）.There was no different in critical thinking ability between the two groups before training（P＞0.05）, but there was statistically significant different after training（P<0.05）. Conclusion: The teaching method of mind maping is applied to the training of new nurses, which improves the training effect and the critical thinking ability.