Nursing care requirements provide the rationale for nursing practice. Two representations of nursing care requirements are nursing intensity and nursing diagnoses. In the present study, these two indicator each significantly explained variation in nursing resource consumption in home health care. Further study is needed to refine a measure of nursing intensity that has construct validity and a base in nursing theory. In addition, techniques are needed for grouping and weighting the various nursing diagnoses to reflect their contribution in expplaning the amount of care provided to patients.