Aim Resilience is the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress, and it can be learned and developed in anyone. The psychological, social, and mental health of Hong Kong youths has been substantially adversely affected by protests that arose in 2019–2020 and the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–2022. Nursing students must cope with academic stress and must often overcome unexpected adversity during clinical placements and in transitioning from a student to a registered nurse in their final year of study. Therefore, this study aims to introduce a nurse-led stress management and resilience training (SMART) programme for final-year nursing undergraduates and examine the effectiveness of the programme in improving the students’ resilience and mental health outcomes. Methods The proposed project will involve a randomised wait-list-controlled trial. Four hundred final-year nursing undergraduates will be randomly assigned to a wait-list control or intervention group. They will be required to attend three 2.5-hour face-to-face training sessions delivered biweekly. The SMART programme will be delivered by an experienced team, comprising an experienced nurse educator and a certified counsellor. The levels of resilience, stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms of both groups will be measured using the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 10 and the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21 at four time points. Results The results of the proposed project will be shared after the completion of the study. Conclusion This study will evaluate the effectiveness of the SMART programme among nursing undergraduates.