This volume contains contributions from the specialist conference on assessment instruments in nursing, which took place in April 2003 in collaboration with the National Assessment Group Germany at the University of Witten-Herdecke. There is a high demand for an assessment instrument to capture the need for care. It is needed as a guideline and basis for individual care planning, as a tool for management in personnel planning, or as an instrument for research. Although there are already many procedures that promise to fulfill these tasks, a consensus on a single instrument has not yet been reached. The authors present current procedures from several perspectives: the general assessment of care needs regardless of the setting in which the person in need of care lives, the specific conditions in inpatient elderly care, and for individuals with dementia.