Objective To classify the nursing needs of patients undergoing ophthalmic day surgery, to understand the characteristics and needs of different patient groups, and propose specific nursing strategies to further improve the nursing quality of the ophthalmic day wards. Methods A retrospective review was conducted on all archived electronic medical records of patients in the Ophthalmology Day Ward of Beijing Tongren Hospital affiliated to the Capital Medical University from January to September 2023. Statistical description and cluster analysis were used to analyze and cluster all data. Results A total of 52049 patients were included, with an average age of (57.11±19.61) years. The number of nursing items required was 0 for 3104 patients (5.96%), 1 for 9158 patients (17.59%), 2 for 25428 patients (48.85%), 3 for 8812 patients (16.93%), 4 for 5442 patients (10.46%), and 5-11 for 105 patients (0.20%). The number of patients’ comorbidities was 0 for 38653 patients (74.26%), 1 for 10896 patients (20.93%), 2 for 2449 patients (4.71%), and 3-11 for 51 patients (0.10%). Using the number of comorbidities, total required nursing care items, and age as clustering variables, the 52049 patients were divided into 3 groups: low nursing demand group with 11817 patients (22.70%), medium nursing demand group with 24466 patients (47.01%), and high nursing demand group with 15766 patients (30.29%). The results showed that both patient age and the number of comorbidities were closely related to the number of nursing care items needed. Conclusion Classifying and analyzing the nursing needs of patients undergoing ophthalmic day surgery can help understand the needs of different categories of patients, improve nursing strategies specifically, provide support for further improving the accuracy and quality of ophthalmic day care services, and provide reference for clinical nursing work.