The study investigated the effect of circulating nursing according to the PDCA cycle in reducing nosocomial infections in 120 hospitalized patients from January 2019 to December 2021. The patients were randomly divided into a control group (60 cases) with routine management and an observation group (60 cases) with the PDCA method. In the observation group, overall satisfaction with nursing was 95%, significantly higher than 73.33% in the control group (p < 0.05). The incidence of nosocomial infection reached 5% (3/60) in the observation group, which is significantly lower than 16.67% (10/60) in the control group (p < 0.05). The observed group showed higher nursing quality scores in medical device management, environmental management, cleaning, disinfection and packaging (all p < 0.05). In addition, the self-management ability of patients in the area of attitude, knowledge of diseases, skills and prevention of complications improved (p < 0.05). Nurses in the observation group scored higher on professional skills such as team spirit, communication, coordination, and problem solving (all p < 0.05). The conclusion of the study states that the PDCA method improves the quality of nursing, self-assurance and patient satisfaction and reduces the occurrence of nosocomial infections.