In 1990 Home Care Education Programs started when legislation established certification for Home Care Nurses. The Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed a home care education curriculum which has 352 class hours and 248 hours of 'family nursing and practice'. Though Home Care Education Programs have been offered in 11 home care educational institutes, there has been no formal revision for the home care education programs. Also a first and second home care demonstration projects have been carried out, but there has been no research on outcomes for home care education as applied in home care practice. The purposes of this study were to identify the important content areas for home care nursing as perceived by home care nurses, and to identify their clinical competence in each of these areas, and from these to identify the education needs. The sample was 107 home care nurses who were working in home care demonstration hospitals and community-based institutions which have been offering home care services. Responses were received from 88 nurses, comprising a 82.2% return rate, and 86 were included in the final analysis. The instrument used was a modification of the instrument developed by Caie-Lawrence et(1995) and Moon's(1991) instrument on home care knowledge. The instrument's Cronbach's coefficient was 0.982. Among the respondents, 64% were working at home care demonstration hospitals and 36% were working at community-based institutions. Their home care experiences were from one month to six years, with a mean of 20.6 months. The importance rating for home care education content was 3.42 0.325, which means importance was rated relatively high. Technical aspects of home care were identified the most important. Five items 'education skill', 'counseling skill', 'interview skill', 'wound care skill', 'bed sore care skill' received 100% importance ratings. The competency rating was 2.87 0.367 and 'technical aspects of home care' was the highest, and 'application to home care skill' was the lowest. Home care nurses' education needs were identified and compared to the importance ratings and competency ratings. Eleven items were identified as the highest in the importance areas and eleven items were in the lowest competency areas. High importance ratings matched with low competency ratings determined training needs, but there was no matching items in this study. In the lowest competency areas four items were excluded, because of not being applicable in current home care practice. Therefore total eighteen items were identified as home care education needs. These items are 'bed sore care skill', 'malpractice', 'wound care skill', 'general infection control', 'change and management of tracheostomy tubes', 'CVA patient care', 'Hospice care', 'pain management', 'urinary catheterization and management', 'L-tube insertion and managements', 'Respirator use and management skill', 'infant care', 'prevention to burnout', 'child assessment', 'CAPD', 'infant assessment', 'computer literacy', and 'psychiatry patient care'.