Objective To explore the effect of clinical clerkship checklist in the Cardiology clerkship for students of clinical medicine. Methods A controlled trial method was adopted in this study. In October 2021, 53 students majoring in clinical medicine of grade 2017 of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, were assigned as the study group to undergo a Cardiology clerkship based on the clerkship checklist model. Meanwhile, a total of 42 students from the grade 2016 of the same specialty who underwent traditional clerkship teaching served as the control group. After the clerkship, the clerkship performance of both groups were compared, and a questionnaire survey was conducted among the study group students to collect their feedback on the teaching. Independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the relevant data. Results The study group students scored higher than the control group in medical record writing [(43.6±2.5) vs. (41.4±4.2)], clerkship performance [(49.5±0.6) vs. (49.0±0.8)], and overall clerkship scores (93.1±2.5) vs. [(90.4±4.3)], all P<0.05. Among the 52 students in the study group who participated in the survey, 48 (92.3%) agreed with the content setting of the clerkship checklist. All students believed that the time arrangement of the checklist was reasonable, and all students believed that the clerkship checklist contributed to the development of clinical ability, especially for clinical thinking, medical record writing, and medical ethics. Conclusions The clerkship model based on the clerkship checklist has achieved promising results in the Cardiology clerkship for students of clinical medicine. It has enhanced students' enthusiasm for the clerkship and improved the effects of clinical clerkship.