Objective To examine the influence of professional commitment and significant others on occupation choices in graduating nurse students. Methods From February to April 2020, 477 graduating nursing students from four medical colleges or universities located in Shanghai were involved in the survey. The questionnaire items included general personal information, nursing professional commitment scale, significant others and occupation choices. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to identify influencing factors of nursing students' occupation choices. Results The significant others for nursing students' employment choices were their parents [70.6% (337/477)], teachers [12.2% (58/477)], peers [9.4% (45/477)] and others [7.8% (37/477)], respectively. The results showed that the score of professional commitment of nursing students was (100.53±20.71); the most significant others influencing nursing students' occupation choice were their parents and school teachers. The proportion of nursing students choosing “hospital nurse” as their occupation choice is 67.9%(324/477); the graduating nursing students with higher score of professional commitment are less likely to choose continuing their education as graduate students(OR=0.961, 95%CI=0.938～0.984) or other unrelated occupations(OR=0.916, 95%CI=0.886～0.948). The graduating nursing students who has higher satisfaction with their clinical teachers during the internship (OR=0.164, 95%CI=0.030～0.894; OR=0.371, 95%CI=0.144～0.959) were less likely to choose other unrelated occupations. Academic teachers (OR=2.896,95%CI=1.212~6.920) may be significant others to graduating nursing students who prefer to continue their education as graduates. Conclusions Professional commitment is a key factor affecting occupation choices of graduating nursing students, and teachers have a significant influence on nursing students' choosing occupation.