Objective: To explore the effect of evidence-based nursing (EBN) on the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in the intensive care unit (ICU) patients with mechanical ventilation. Methods: The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on EBN in preventing VAP were searched the PubMed, WEB of Science, Cochrane library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Periodical Databases and Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Databases (VIP), data were analyzed by RevMan 5.3 software. Results: Ten RCTs were included in the study. Meta-analysis results showed that the EBN reduced the incidence of VAP (RR =0.35, 95%CI 0.26 to 0.48, P<0.00001), prolonged occurrence time (MD=3.78, 95%CI 2.79 to 4.78, P<0.00001), shorten the mechanical ventilation duration (MD=−7.03, 95%CI −9.64 to −4.42, P<0.00001], but the effect on shortening the length of hospitalization was not obvious. Egger’s test showed a publication bias of the RCTs retrieved (P=0.003). Conclusion: EBN can reduce the incidence of VAP, prolong the time of occurrence and shorten the mechanical ventilation duration, but it still needs to be further verified by large sample, multicenter and high quality clinical RCT study.