Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the caredependency of patients undergoing surgical intervention in terms ofperception of nursing care, socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Material and Methods: The study was a correlational descriptive study. It was conducted in the surgical clinics of a universityhospital located in the southeast of Turkey between November 2019and January 2020. The study sample consisted of 200 patients who hadundergone a surgical intervention. The study data was collected usinga socio-demographic and clinical characteristics form, a care dependency scale and a perception of nursing care scale. Number, percentage,mean, standard deviation, correlation analysis, Student t-test or MannWhitney U test and one-way ANOVA test were used for data assessment. Results: No statistically significant correlation was detectedbetween the care dependency mean score (64.07±12.53) and the perception of nursing care (66.18±11.84) mean score of patients undergoing a surgical intervention (p>0.05). A statistically significant differencewas found between care dependency mean scores and age, health insurance, clinic of treatment, total duration of hospitalization and ASAlevel prior to surgical intervention (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was observed that patients who had undergone a surgical intervention had goodlevels of care dependency. No correlation was detected between thecare dependency and perception of nursing care of patients who hadundergone surgical intervention. It was seen that patients were moredependent as their age and total duration of hospitalization increased.It was also determined that patients receiving treatment in a neurosurgery clinic had higher care dependency, while patients with healthinsurance and an ASA level of 1 had lower care dependency. Thus, individual factors should be taken into consideration in assessment ofcare dependency.