The subject of the thesis was to describe the use of malnutrition- related screening tool NRS 2002 in a surgical ward based on written data. The subject was from one of the surgical expertise subjects of The Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) and the thesis was made in one surgical ward. The purpose of the thesis was to describe the use of malnutrition- related screening tool NRS 2002 in a surgical ward. The target of the thesis is to promote proper nutrition in the surgical patient and thereby improving the patient's recovery after surgery. The data was collected during one week from patient records. During the week there were 45 patients in the ward. With the help of a structured data collection form, the use of the NRS 2002- screening tool was studied to learn if it was used and how it was used on the sample patients. This given data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. According to the results, we found that NRS 2002 screening tool was rarely used based on data record. The NRS 2002 – screening tool was only used in a small number of patients, and so for most of the patients the screening tool was not used at all. In some cases where NRS 2002- screening tool was used, it was incomplete. The results are showing that NRS 2002- screening tool is not used as it was designed to and that it should be further developed and applied so that the screening tool for malnutrition would be part of the everyday routine in the ward and all the nursing staff of the ward be engaged to use it. This could be encouraged by continuing education, written guideline and with the support of nursing managment.