In this study nursing activities were examined to determine the nursing cost. A professional nursing group developed a tool for the investigation. 128 nursing activities were identified by the tool in 16 nursing care areas as referenced in the literature. Each activity was examined for four essential factors to define nursing cost ; time consumed for the care, level of professional skill, degree of independency and performer of the care. The activity was rated by a five point Likert scale. The investigation was conducted with the nursing staffing working in the 21 university hospitals in Korea and having more than four years experience especially in medical or surgical wards. The participating nursing staff were screened on the basic of the recommendation of the nursing director. The data were gathered from June 12th to August 12th, 1989. All the data were analyzed for mean, standard deviation, percent, and correlation coefficients between items. The results are summarized as follows : 1. Direct nursing care was classified into 16 large areas and 128 small activities. 2. No significant correlation was found between the study items of each activity. 3. Among 128 nursing activities, Those performed less than 50% of the time by a nurse were excluded from the nursing cost. Also excluded activities which were given less than 9 marks in all three items, time consumed, level of professional skill, and degree of independency. As a result, 83 activities in 14 nursing care areas were selected for the proposal to estimate nursing cost.