Patients undergoing thoracic surgery may experience pain, altered pulmonary function, lung complications and emotional disturbance due to surgery-related physical and psychological changes. It is important to provide relevant and effective postoperative nursing management to these patients. A critical review is adopted to examine the current literatures to explore the effectiveness of the provision of the common post-operative nursing interventions to the patients receiving thoracic surgery. Relaxation and music therapy, pre-operative inspiratory muscle training and inhalation therapy are found to be able to relieve pain and prevent lung complication from the patients respectively. However, the effectiveness of deep breathing, incentive spirometry and effective coughing has not yet been proved by empirical studies. This paper reviews the common post-operative care for the patients receiving thoracic surgery with an evidence-based approach and provides references for effective clinical care.