Objective　To investigate the teaching effect of heuristic teaching in medical psychol-ogy teaching. Methods　Totally 104 students（2010 grade higher vocational nursing class） were divided into experiment group（n=52） and control group（n=52）. Heuristic teaching model and conventional teaching model were applied respectively. t test was used to compare the final exam scores of two groups； self-made evaluation sheet was used to evaluate the teaching effect and χ2 test was employed to compare the results between two groups， with P<0.05 standing for statistical significance. Results　Final exam scores of experiment group （87.48±3.18） was better than control group （81.43±4.89） （P=0.016）. Teaching evaluation was better in experiment group than in control group. Conclusions　Heuristic teach-ing is helpful in improving students' study enthusiasm and training their scientific thinking.