Objective: To examine the level of practice employed by head nurses in the development of their nurses' core competencies in both accredited and non-accredited general hospitals in Southern Thailand, and then to compare the two groups.

Researchdesign:Comparative descriptive research.

Materials and Methods: Sixty head nurses from accredited general hospitals and 100 head nurses from non-accredited general hospitals were selected by random sampling without replacement technique.

Result: The overall mean score of the head nurses' practice in their development of nurses' core competencies in accredited general hospitals was at a high level (X= 3.02, SD = 0.49). The levels of each phase were at a high level: goal-setting phase; planning phase; practice phase; evaluation phase; and improvement phase (X = 3.15, SD = 0.51; X = 3.08, SD = 0.50; X = 2.98, SD = 0.48; X = 2.94, SD = 0.53; X = 2.97, SD = 0.50, respectively). On the other hand, mean score of the head nurses' practice in their development of nurses' core competencies in non-accredited general hospitals was at a moderate level (X = 2.60, SD = 0.62). Only the level of the goal-setting phase was at a high level (X = 2.72, SD = 0.66). The levels of the rest were at a moderate level: planning phase; practice phase; evaluation phase; and improvement phase (X = 2.65, SD = 0.65; X = 2.61, SD = 0.65; X = 2.54, SD = 0.62; X = 2.46, SD = 0.73, respectively). There was a significant difference between the overall mean scores of the developments between accredited and non-accredited general hospitals (P  <  0.01).

Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the development of nurses' core competencies by their head nurses in accredited and non-accredited general hospitals because the process of hospital accreditation was instrumental for the development and continuous quality improvement nursing practices.