The purpose of this study was to understand the competence of public health nurses who provide the health care for the elderly. The subjects had been selected from health stations of Taiwan. There were 375 subjects, which were the public health nurses of Keelung City, Changhua County, Tainan City, Taitung County, and Kaohsuing City. About 319 of them responded our structured-questionnaire (with 85.1% of effective subjects). The period of investigation was from October to December in 1998. The main conclusions of this study were: 1. The competence score of public health nurses in the health stations for providing the elderly health care in community was 77.2 score (perfect score 125). The order of the mean score of four aspects was (1) the competence score of providing prevetion care for the elderly was 15.9 score (perfect score 20) (2) the basic skills score of assessing the health status of the elderly was 18.7 score (perfect score 30) (3) the competence score of reforming the bad health behaviors of the elderly was 12.0 score (perfect score 20) and (4) the competence score which needs the related resources or technique of the elderly health care services was 30.7 score (perfect score 55) Therefore, the last two aspects were the two of most needed improvement. 2. The interesting of public health nurses for providing the elderly health care that was rarely. But, 63% public health nurses would like to learning the competence of 25 items, 90% public health nurses wanted to learn the competence of 14 items. 3. The professional qualification and the elderly care experience of public health nurses were the significant correlation with competence of providing the elderly health care. We suggested that practitioners, administrators and researchers to collaborate in promoting the competence of public health nurses for providing the elderly health care in communities.