Objective To explore the effect of BOPPPS teaching model in the application of nursing professional English teaching.Methods Using convenience sampling method, a total of 49 undergraduate nursing students of Grade 2013 were chosen from February to July in 2016. There were 24 students in Class One, and 25 students in Class Two. By throwing coin,Class One was chosen as the experimental group, BOPPPS teaching model was applied in their nursing professional English class teaching. Class Two as the control group, received the traditional PowerPoint (PPT) teaching method. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the end of the semester from the students' reap according to teaching and their participatory learning. Results Cronbach's alpha of the questionnaire was 0.846. A number of 41 students completed the survey with the effective rate 83.7%. All students in experimental group recognized BOPPPS teaching model and thought through BOPPPS teaching model of teaching, they had achieved the teaching goal. The number of participants for classroom demonstration in experimental group were more than the control group (P<0.05), and more time to prepare for the classroom demonstration in experimental group (P<0.05). More students in experimental group took part in the class performance with more showing methods (P<0.05) and had gained more in the aspect of autonomous learning, oral presentations, multimedia application, communication skills and critical thinking(P<0.05).Conclusions In nursing professional English teaching, BOPPPS or adjusted BOPPPS (B/P-O-P-P/S) teaching mode can make teaching content modular and systematic which is helpful for students to understand knowledge and establish knowledge module. Students' autonomous learning ability, problem solving ability, critical thinking could be improved.