Background: Surgical wounds management is a necessary part of daily nurses' practices. Improper surgical wound management can result in massive complications uppermost of them surgical wound infection (SWI) which have serious implications for patients and health care systems. To effectively manage surgical wounds, nurses involved in patients' care must possess the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve the greatest positive health outcomes and avoid complications. Study aim: evaluate the effect of the training program on nurses' performance regarding surgical wounds management. Design: a quasi-experimental design. Setting: General surgery department and operating room at Zagazig University Hospitals, Al Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. Subject: A convenience sample of all available nurses (70), who work in the aforementioned locations. Tools: A self-administered questionnaire to assess nurses' socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge; observational checklists to assess nurses' practice regarding surgical wound care and SWI prophylactic measures. Results: there was a lack of studied nurses' knowledge and practice regarding surgical wounds management pre-training program intervention, as 11.4%, 12.9%, and 43.3% of nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge regarding surgical wounds management, incompetent practice of wound care and prophylactic measures of SWI respectively, which improved to reach 74.3, 70.0%, 88.6% respectively post program intervention with a percent of improvement equal 42.05%, 43.4%, 16.89% respectively. Conclusions: The training program based on the identified needs of the nurses plays an effective role in improving their performance (knowledge and practice) regarding surgical wounds management. Recommendations: the developed training program should be implemented on a wide scale in study settings as well as all similar ones including all governmental hospitals.