Objective To investigate the differentiated driving effects of medical students' subjective well-being and situational well-being in ideological and political education on their satisfaction with ideological and political education. Methods From March to June 2025, a convenience sampling method was used to select 226 full-time students from a medical university as participants. The PERMA-Profiler scale was used to measure their subjective well-being. A self-developed ″Situational Well-being in Ideological and Political Education Questionnaire″ was used to measure their situational well-being in ideological and political education. A single item (0-10) was used to assess their satisfaction with ideological and political education. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to examine the structural validity of the Situational Well-being Questionnaire. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare the scores with theoretical median values. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to examine the effects of the two types of well-being on satisfaction. Results For the situational well-being questionnaire, Cronbach's α coefficients for all dimensions were ≥0.90, composite reliability (CR) values were ≥0.90, and average variance extracted (AVE) values were ≥0.74. The model fit was acceptable (χ²/df=2.34, CFI=0.97, RMSEA=0.08). The median scores for the dimensions of subjective well-being among medical students ranged from 7.67 to 8.33. The median scores for the dimensions of situational well-being in ideological and political education ranged from 4.00 to 4.33. All scores were significantly higher than the respective theoretical median values (5 and 3, all P<0.001). No statistically significant differences were found in either type of well-being by gender or educational level (all P>0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that both situational well-being in ideological and political education (β=0.41, P<0.001) and subjective well-being (β=0.23, P=0.002) positively influenced medical students' satisfaction with ideological and political education, with the former having a significantly stronger effect than the latter. Conclusions Medical students' subjective well-being and their situational well-being in ideological and political education are both relatively high. Both types of well-being positively influence satisfaction with ideological and political education, but the driving effect of situational well-being in ideological and political education is considerably stronger than that of subjective well-being. This suggests that enhancing students' immediate positive psychological experiences within the context of ideological and political education is a key practical focus for improving satisfaction with ideological and political education.