Purpose: The study is to investigate the effect of communication and self-leadership on nursing performance. Methods: The subjects of study were composed of 358 nurses at a G city university hospital, tested with structured questionnaire from September 15 to 30, 2010. The collected data were analyzed with ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis. Results: The level of communication, self-leadership, and nursing performance was 3.37, 3.38 and 3.70 respectively in average. The variables showing significant difference in communication were as follows: age, marital status, religious status, education, monthly income, work department and work experience. Also, the variables in nursing performance were as follows: age, marital status, religious status, education, education, monthly income, position, working department and work experience. Communication, self-leadership and nursing performance of nurse showed significant positive correlation. Nursing performance was positively correlated with monthly income, when it exceeded 2.01 million won, career experience and self-leadership (p<.001). These variables explained 53.7% of the regression model. Conclusion: Since monthly income, work experience, communication and self-leadership have positive effect on nursing performance, an effective strategy is required to improve self-leadership and nurse's communication.