Objective To explore the motivations behind the choice of no-family-accompanied care among patients and families staying in no-family-accompanied ward of the hepatobiliary-pancreatic surgery department, and to provide references for optimizing resource allocation and management in no-family-accompanied care wards. Methods Purposive sampling was used to select 17 hospitalized patients and 13 family members as research subjects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the interview data were analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step phenomenological analytical method. Results The study yielded 3 main themes and 9 subthemes：multidimensional driving factors in the choice of caregiving model (lack of social support and excessive caregiving burden, differentiated needs for professional care, and the dual influence of emotional support and cultural values); recognition of the advantages of no-family-accompanied wards (effective infection risk control, significantly improved hospitalization experience, and facilitation of recovery); and limitations in the implementation of unaccompanied care wards (insufficient financial support, concerns regarding human resource allocation and quality of care, and the dual effects of visitation management). Conclusion The choice of no-family-accompanied ward in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery is jointly influenced by the level of social support, the demand for professionalized care, and emotional and cultural perspectives. Sustainable development of no-family-accompanied wards requires a multidimensional collaborative mechanism, establishment of comprehensive social support and caregiver training systems, strengthening and supervision of nursing assistant teams, exploration of diversified cost-sharing models, and integration of intelligent technologies with humanistic care.