Abstract: Objective: To investigate the status of health education competence of community nurses in Shenzhen City and analyze the influencing factors. Methods: Totally 465 community nurses who came from 172 communities in Shenzhen City were investigated by a questionnaire with the scale of health education competence of community nurses. Results: The mean score of the total score of the scale of health education competence of community nurses is 3.97±0.61. Among the four dimensions, the score of the competence of implement and evaluation was the highest (4.09±0.85), while the score of the competence of assessment was the lowest (3.87±0.82). The score of the competence of communication and learning of nurses from community health center was significantly higher than those nurses from community health stations (P<0.05), while there were no significant differences in health education competence of community nurses with different academic degrees, professional titles, lengths of nursing employment. Conclusion: The overall level of health education competence of community nurses in Shenzhen City is good, but it still needs to be improved, especially in the competence of assessment.

Key words: community; nurse; health education competence