Objective To explore the effect of focused nursing model on negative emotions and subjective well-being of lung cancer patients. Methods Eighty-six lung cancer patients hospitalized from November 2014 to November 2016 in our hospital were divided into two groups according to the order of admission in equal number. The control group was treated with routine care, and the observation group was with focused nursing model. The two groups were compared in terms of anxiety by SAS, depression by SDS, subjective well-being. Results The scores by SAS and SDS in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The levels of objective support, subjective support, self-evaluation and subjective well-being index of the observation group were higher than the control group (P <0.05). Conclusion Focused nursing model can effectively relieve negative emotions, improve subjective well-being of lung cancer patients, worthy of clinical promotion.