Objective　To explore the effects of PBL teaching method on classroom atmosphere of basic nursing course. Methods　Two classes of nursing sophomore were enrolled and were divided two groups， 60 as PBL group and other 60 as traditional group. Students in two groups were evaluated by ques-tionnaire of classroom atmosphere. Data were statistically analyzed through t-test， P<0.05 standing for statistical significances. Results　There were statistical differences in classroom atmosphere between two groups（P＜0.05）； class democracy，elicitation in teaching and student cooperation in PBL group were significantly better than those of traditional mode（P＜0.05）. There was no significant difference in learn-ing autonomy between the two groups （P >0.05）. Conclusions　PBL teaching is conductive to stimulat-ing students' learning potentials， culturing their cooperative learning， raising the efficiency of classroom learning and improving the classroom atmosphere.But learning autonomy of students needs to be further improved.