Objective <p>To explore the barriers experienced by junior nurses in providing discharge readiness services to elderly patients with cancer, with the aim of informing the optimization of clinical nursing practice protocols.</p> Design <p>Descriptive qualitative research.</p> Methods <p>By purposive sampling, 15 junior nurses working in the general surgery department of a tertiary-level hospital in Yangzhou City were selected and interviewed in-depth one-on-one from February to March 2025.</p> Results <p>Two themes and eight subthemes were distilled, including endogenous factors (insufficient interdisciplinary knowledge base of healthcare workers, professional attitudes and perceptions of healthcare workers, communication and coordination among healthcare workers and patients), and exogenous factors (insufficiently equipped human resources, lack of systematic and specialized training, lack of pluralism in social support, a single approach to discharge guidance, inadequate assessment and feedback mechanisms).</p> Conclusion <p>In the practice of discharge readiness services for elderly cancer patients, junior nurses face a series of barrier factors. Clinical junior nurses should emphasize the importance of patient’ discharge readiness services and adopt effective interventions to improve the level of patient discharge readiness and the quality of discharge instructions.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>