ObjectiveTo investigate the knowledge and need of caregivers who perform self-nursing for children with peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC), in order to provide evidence for health education for children in-patients and children discharged from hospital with central venous catheter. MethodsSelf-designed questionnaire was used to investigate 364 caregivers who performed nursing for 162 PICC pediatric in-patients bwtween December 2013 and July 2015. The investigation was carried out on the general information, nursing knowledge, and the acquisition approach of caregivers' existing nursing knowledge. ResultsThe majority of indwelling PICC pediatric caregivers were elderly people, and the common care model was alternate caring carried out by core family members. The children were cared by the elderly in 59 families (36.42%). Twenty-one families had the parents of the children as the major caregivers (12.96%), and alternate caring by parents and the elderly happened in 82 families (50.62%). The total score of the investigation was ranged from 5 to 29 with an average of 11.37±5.68. Nineteen children were discharged with catheter, whose caregivers got a score from 6 to 11, averaging 8.41±4.33. ConclusionThe ratio of self-nursing knowledge in caregivers for pediatric PICC patients is generally low, especially in those caregivers for patients discharged with central venous catheter. Nursing administrators should pay attention to training of the nurses, trying to improve the knowledge of nurses on PICC health education. Different forms of health education should be carried out for different caregivers. Finally, health education model should also be continuously improved to raise the quality of PICC pediatric nursing.