To explore the application effect of nursing aesthetics in the basic experimental teaching of nursing. Methods Sixty nursing students of grade 2022 and grade 2023 who studied in the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University were selected as the research objects. They were divided into control group and observation group according to different grades, with 30 students in each group. The control group adopted traditional teaching methods, while the observation group introduced nursing aesthetics. The assessment results, teaching quality and satisfaction of the two groups were compared. Results The theoretical and practical scores of the observation group were higher than those of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). The teaching quality of the observation group was higher than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P <0.05). The teaching satisfaction of the observation group was 96.67%, which was higher than 76.67% of the control group, and the difference was statistically signiP ficant (P <0.05). Conclusion The application of nursing aesthetics in the basic experimental teaching of nursing is effective, which can effectively improve the assessment results and comprehensive quality of nursing students, improve students' satisfaction with teaching work, and also help to improve the quality of teaching.