The cultivation of public health nurses in China began in the period of the Republic of China. This paper discussed the training of public health nurses by combing the materials of newspapers，journals and books at that time. It also pointed out the importance and urgency of training public health nurses and proposed that the core competence should cover the aspects of knowledge，skills and spirit. The discussion on the training mode of public health nurses focused on the enrollment scale，the curriculum，and the localization of education. These understandings provide enlightenment for restarting the cultivation of public health nurses， inheriting and exploiting the core competence of public health nurses，and adapting the training of public health nurses to real-life needs，which have a positive historical function and practical reference significance.