Objective To explore the effect of targeted nursing on psychological status and living standards of patients with gallstone surgery. Methods A total of 68 patients with gallstones treated in our hospital from June 2018 to August 2019 were selected as the research subjects, and they were divided into reference group (n=34) and research group (n=34) according to the random throw method. The reference group carried out routine nursing, the research group implemented targeted nursing interventions, the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS), self-rating depression scale (SDS) scores,postoperative pain tolerance rate and quality of life scores between the two groups were compared. Results There were no significant differences in SAS and SDS scores of patients between the two groups before intervention (P＞0.05). The SAS and SDS scores of the research group after the nursing intervention were lower than those of the reference group,and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). The pain tolerance rate in the research group was 91.18%,which was higher than 70.59% in the reference group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The postoperative quality of life scores and each score in the research group were higher than thoset of the reference group,and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The effect of targeted nursing intervention on patients with gallstone surgery is significant.