Objective To explore the application effect of clinical nursing pathway in elderly patients with cataract surgery. Methods A total of 96 elderly patients with cataract admitted to our hospital from January to December 2022 were selected as the research objects. According to the random number table method, they were divided into control group and observation group, with 48 cases in each group. The control group was treated with routine nursing mode, and the observation group was treated with clinical nursing pathway mode. The clinical indexes, mastery of disease health knowledge and nursing satisfaction were compared between the two groups. Results The postoperative visual acuity, hospitalization days and hospitalization expenses of the observation group were better than those of the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P