BACKGROUND Gastrointestinal tumors have a high incidence rate. The application value of the cooperative nursing care system of medical care has received widespread attention in recent years. However, there are few studies on the value of the joint application of collaborative nursing care and self-efficacy education. AIM To explore the effect of cooperative nursing care management/self-efficacy education on postoperative infection and self-efficacy in gastrointestinal tumor surgery patients. METHODS A total of 102 patients with gastrointestinal tumors treated in our hospital from October 2018 to February 2020 were selected and divided into a conventional group ( n = 51) and a combined group ( n = 51) according to the nursing plan. The routine group adopted routine nursing, and the joint group adopted the medical care cooperative responsibility system nursing management combined with self-efficacy education. The self-efficacy scores, coping style scores, self-experience burden scores, and postoperative complication rates of the two groups before and after intervention were counted. RESULTS After intervention, the daily life behavior management, cognitive symptom management, and disease management scores of the two groups were higher than those before the intervention, and those of the combined group were higher than those of the conventional group (all P = 0.000). After the intervention, the positive response scores of the two groups were higher than those before the intervention, the negative response scores were lower than those before the intervention, and the combined group was better than the conventional group (all P = 0.000). After the intervention, the two groups’ emotional, economic, and physical factor scores were lower than those before the intervention, and the combined group was lower than the conventional group (all P = 0.000). The incidence of infection in the combined group (1.96%) was lower than that in the conventional group (15.69%) ( P = 0.036). CONCLUSION Cooperative nursing care management and self-efficacy education improved the physical and mental states of gastrointestinal cancer surgery patients, change the response to disease, and reduce the risk of postoperative infection.