OBJECTIVE：To investigate the cognition of clinical pharmacists on the clinical pharmacy practice and their profession， and provide reference for further developing clinical pharmacy practice. METHODS： A questionnaire was designed， and random sample was conducted for the clinical pharmacists from 30 secondary and tertiary hospitals in Shanghai， and the investigation results were analyzed statistically. RESULTS：Totally 130 questionnaires were sent out， and 102 were effectively received with valid response rate of 78.46％. 94.11％ of the investigated subjects were willing to be a clinical pharmacist， but 17.65％ of them considered that they were incompetent for their work； 29.41％ of them thought the current situation of clinical pharmacy practice was not ideal； all the respondents considered that the clinical pharmacist system should be implemented in medical and health institutions； the cognition and evaluation of investigated subjects in tertiary hospitals on clinical pharmacy practice and their profession was generally higher than those in secondary hospitals （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： The clinical pharmacists in medical and health institutions in Shanghai showed high cognition on their profession， and the clinical pharmacy practice has already made some achievements， but many work still need to be improved. Therefore， clinical pharmacists should continuously study their professional knowledge and improve their professional skills and quality； hospitals and universities should strengthen the subject construction and personnel training of clinical pharmacy and deeply carry out the clinical pharmacist system； health administration departments should strengthen the related laws and regulations of clinical pharmacy； colleges and universities should strengthen the discipline construction and personnel training.