Objective To observe the effect of responsibility system nursing on postoperative rehabilitation of patients with earlystage breast cancer undergoing breast conserving surgery. Methods A total of 90 patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent breast conserving surgery in our hospital from April 2022 to April 2023 were randomly divided into control group and study group, with 45 patients in each group. The control group was given routine nursing, while the study group was given responsibility nursing. The quality of life, nursing satisfaction and complications were compared between the two groups. Results The scores of quality of life in the study group were higher than those in the control group (P