Objectives Background Design Methods Results Conclusions To conduct psychometric testing of the Chinese version of the National Health Service Sustainability Model as an instrument to assess the sustainability of innovation in the Chinese nursing setting.Evidence‐based practice is recognized worldwide as a way to improve the quality of healthcare; however, many evidence‐based practice programmes decline over time and do not sustain the benefits of their improvements. A sustainability assessment tool is used internationally but its use has not been validated in China.A methodological study to test instrument validity and reliability.The data collection was conducted from 15 June 2022 to 31 August 2022. The internal consistency of the Chinese version of the sustainability model was measured with Cronbach's alpha. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the model's structural validity.Four hundred eighty‐three questionnaires were returned, of which 478 were valid. The short time taken to evaluate the Chinese version of the sustainability model demonstrated its efficiency and ability to adapt to a busy clinical environment. The confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit model and supported the convergence validity of the sustainability model. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.905 for the total scale, which indicated good internal consistency.The results of this study suggest that the Chinese version of the sustainability model is a valid, reliable and efficient tool for measuring the sustainability of evidence‐based practices in Chinese nursing settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]