Objective To discuss the nursing care experience of lung resection under thoracoscopy in order to provide a useful reference for reducing complications and improving quality of life for patients. Methods Totals of 72 patients with lung cancer were selected from January to December 2012 and divided into the intervention group and the control group, with 36 patients in each.The control group used conventional care methods, and the intervention group had more detailed and humane care in the perspectives of preoperative visiting, operative reports, relaxation training, postural training, operating room care, surgery care, postoperative care and so on.After admission and 7 days after surgery, the Quality of Life Scale-C30 ( QLQ-C30) was used to carry out the investigation.Results The hospital stay of patients in the intervention group was (10.2 ±1.8) days, the extubation time was (56.3 ±7.6) hours, which were significantly lower than (17.4 ± 3.9) days and (64.9 ±8.1) hours in the control group (t=-10.057, -4.646, respectively;P<0.05). The rates of anastomotic bleeding and pulmonary air leaks were 0.0%and 2.8%in the intervention group and 11.1%,8.3%in the control group, respectively, which had no statistically significant differences (χ2 =1.014, 0.158, respectively;P>0.05).The quality of life and symptom scores of two groups in the time of admission had no statistically significant differences.After the treatment, the overall health status, role, emotion, cognition, society of patients in the intervention group and control group were statistically significant ( t=2.109, 2.547, 2.047, 2.141, respectively;P <0.05).Conclusions Good nursing care in the periods of lung resection under thoracoscopy can reduce the rate of complications which is critical to patients’ recovery.