Traditional nursing and health education design courses usually only transfer knowledge via lectures, and lack interaction, drills and personalized feedback. However, the development and widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence via the ChatGPT system presents an opportunity to address these issues. Some CIDI model-based ChatGPT systems have been developed, but how to effectively apply these technologies in nursing education design courses remains a challenging problem for researchers. In order to explore the application mode and effect of generative artificial intelligence via ChatGPT technology in nursing education, this study integrated generative artificial intelligence via the ChatGPT system into the teaching activities of nursing and health education design courses, and used computers as learning tools to guide learners to learn nursing and health knowledge. At the same time, two classes of nursing undergraduates were recruited to conduct a quasi-experiment. One of the classes was the experimental group, which used the generative artificial intelligence via the ChatGPT system for learning; the other class was the control group, which used traditional teaching methods for learning. By analyzing learners’ learning efficiency and learning satisfaction, we obtained results about the application effect of generative artificial intelligence via ChatGPT technology in a nursing education design course. According to the experimental results, the generative artificial intelligence via ChatGPT system effectively improved learners’ critical thinking ability, problem solving, and learning enjoyment. These results indicate that the generative artificial intelligence via ChatGPT system has great potential in nursing education design courses, and can improve the deficiencies of traditional teaching methods.