Background <p>With continuous advances in healthcare technologies and the growing societal demand for high-quality pediatric nursing care, the limitations of traditional lecture-based teaching methods in pediatric nursing education for higher vocational students have become increasingly evident. Teacher-centered, lecture-based instruction may be insufficient in fostering students’ learning motivation, cultivating positive learning values, promoting active learning attitudes, and supporting the development of critical thinking skills. To address these challenges, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a multimodal situational blended teaching model in higher vocational pediatric nursing course, with the goal of providing practical insights for improving the quality of nursing talent development.</p> Methods <p>A quasi-experimental study was conducted using convenience sampling among two consecutive cohorts (2022 and 2023) of students enrolled in the three-year higher vocational nursing program at Guilin Medical University, China. The 2022 cohort served as the control group and received traditional lecture-based instruction, while the 2023 cohort constituted the intervention group and was taught using a multimodal situational blended teaching model. At the end of the semester, data on academic performance, learning values, learning engagement, critical thinking abilities, and satisfaction with course reform were collected via an online questionnaire administered through Wenjuanxing and analyzed quantitatively.</p> Results <p>The intervention group demonstrated significantly higher scores than the control group in academic performance, learning values, learning engagement, and critical thinking abilities (all <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). They also reported significantly greater satisfaction with four dimensions of the course reform: overall satisfaction with the course delivery, satisfaction with the design and organization of practical components, satisfaction with the availability and quality of learning resources, and satisfaction with the effectiveness of teacher-student interactions and feedback mechanisms (all <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05).</p> Conclusions <p>The multimodal situational blended teaching model was associated with better learning outcomes and higher satisfaction in higher vocational pediatric nursing education. However, the cross-sectional design and self-reported data preclude causal inference; longitudinal studies are needed to assess its long-term impact on competency development.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>