Patients and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in the surgical intensive care units (ICU) of a university hospital between August and December 2012. The study population consisted of 105 nurses who worked in the surgical intensive care units of this hospital. All of the study population was included in the study sample without any sample selection. The research was completed with 80 nurses, reaching 76.19% of the population. A questionnaire, developed by the researcher was used for data collection, and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the data.

Results: It was determined that 70% of the nurses surveyed had training on eye care, 45% were applying eye care once every 8 hours, 70% had routine practice in eye care in their ICU, 92.5% were applying eye care starting from inner canthus to exterior canthus, 71.2% were closing eyes with a sterile sponge, 50% were using tear drops to prevent dry eye, 60% were applying regular eye care, 55% were not observing the blink count, 82.4% were protecting the eyes of patients who had no blink reflex all the time, 90% were evaluating the signs of infection regularly, and 72.4% were recording the problem identified in the eyes of a patient.

Conclusion: The awareness of eye care with nurses was found to be high, but some incorrect practice was also present due to a lack of knowledge Keywords : surgical intensive care unit, nursing, eye care, exposure kerotopathy