Objective To study whether experiential nutrition education can improve nutritional status of maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Methods From January to December 2017,0 patients undergoing MHD in the First Department of Internal Medicine, Yibin Second Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were recruited, randomly divided into intervention group and control group (n=90 cases in each group), and given experiential and traditional nutrition education respectively. Six months later, nutrition knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) score, nutrition-related biochemical indicators and physical measurement indicators were compared between the 2 groups. The overall nutritional status of patients was assessed by patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) scale. SPSS statistics 19.0 was used for data analysis. Results There were no significant differences in age, gender, dialysis time and primary diseases between the 2 groups (P>0.05). After intervention, the intervention group had obviously higher knowledge score [(8.5±1.3) vs (6.7±2.0)], practice score [(4.1±1.0) vs (3.4±1.3)], hemoglobin level [(106.4±9.2) vs (96.1±8.7)g/L], albumin level [(38.3±5.2) vs(36.2±4.9)g/L], triceps skinfold thickness [(6.1±2.1) vs (5.4±1.9)mm], arm circumference [(26.0±4.4) vs (24.5±4.1)cm], arm muscle circumference [(24.1±2.6) vs (22.8±2.9)cm], and body fat ratio [(22.6±4.1)% vs (21.1±4.4)%] when compared with the control group (all P<0.05). There was no significant difference in PG-SGA score between the 2 groups before intervention [(6.1±2.2) vs(6.3± 2.4), P>0.05]. After intervention, the PG-SGA score was obviously lower in the intervention group than in the control group [(4.5+2.0) vs (5.6+2.1), t=3.60, P<0.05]. The nutritional status A was 27%(24/90) in the control group, and 40%(36/90) in intervention group, with significant difference between them (P<0.05). Conclusion Experiential nutrition education can improve the nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of MHD patients, promote their dietary compliance and improve their nutritional status.