Objective To construct evaluation indicators for surgical nursing workload in the operating room and determine their weightings, providing references for performance assessment and human resource allocation in the operating room. Methods Literature analysis was conducted to determine the primary items of the evaluation indicator system for surgical nursing workload. The Delphi method was used to consult 23 experts over three rounds, and the analytic hierarchy process was employed to determine the weightings of the indicators. Results The final evaluation indicator system for surgical nursing workload included three primary indicators, 16 secondary indicators, and 59 tertiary indicators. The effective recovery rate of the three rounds of consultation questionnaires was 100%, with an expert authority coefficient of 0.93. The Kendall′s coefficient of concordance for the first two rounds was 0.154 and 0.228 (both P<0.05). In the third round, the consistency ratio values were all <0.10. Conclusion The evaluation indicators for surgical nursing workload constructed in this study are clearly defined in dimensions and hierarchical structure, objective, and quantifiable, providing a measurement tool for evaluating surgical nursing workload in clinical operating rooms.