Purpose: Effective individual care plans need to include identification of nursing problems. This study was conducted to identify nursing problems and to compare nursing problems identified by nurses with those identified through the Resident Assessment Protocols (RAPs) from the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI). Methods: Data were collected from 307 residents in 4 nursing homes. The results of the comprehensive assessment using the Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set 2.0 version (MDS 2.0) were compared with data from questionnaires on nursing problems which were completed by nurses working in the 4 nursing homes. Resident Assessment Protocols (RAPs) were analyzed using the RAI manual algorithms. Results: The average number of problems identified by RAI-FC was 8.0±2.83 compared to 4.5±2.37 identified by the nurses. The problems most frequently not detected by the nurses were dehydration/fluid maintenance (92.9%), followed by urinary incontinence and indwelling catheter (91.9%), pressure ulcer (83.8%), visual function (83.3%), and delirium (76.2%). Conclusion: The results indicate a need for a comprehensive need assessment instrument for individual care plans, development of a manual for nursing residents in nursing homes, and further education of nurses about the unique nursing problems in this population.