[Standards of nursing services for private hospitals]

The formalization of nursing quality assurance in private hospitals is of critical importance. The purpose of this study was to formulate national nursing service standards for private hospitals. A structured two phase research technique was utilised to validate the standards by a representative national group of experts. Statistical validity of the standards was calculated by means of a content validity index for each standard. Fourteen (5%) of these standards (N = 275) were rejected and 25 (9%) require reformulation. It is recommended that these standards should serve as optimum standards for nurse administrators in private hospitals, and that these standards be published formally.