We conducted a survey on staff perceptions of what the educational needs would be for an infection surveillance and control program in patient care practices in 10 hospitals in Hong Kong. Seven hundred twenty nurses were interviewed and were requested to select their needs from six topics: isolation procedures, disinfection of environment and instruments, surgical wound care, urinary catheter care, prevention of hospital-acquired pneumonia, and prevention of infusion therapy sepsis. According to their pattern of needs, the clinical units could be divided into three groups. Staff members in the "medically oriented units," consisting of the medical, geriatric, obstetric, and intensive care units, indicated that their greatest needs were in the areas of isolation procedures and disinfection of environment and instruments, whereas nurses in the "surgically oriented units," consisting of surgical, orthopedic, and gynecologic units, indicated that surgical wound care was the area where education was most needed. The pattern in the third group, the pediatric units, was similar to that of medical units in indicating isolation procedures and disinfection of environment and instruments as the greatest needs but differed in having a higher score for prevention of hospital-acquired pneumonias and a lower score for surgical wound care. An effective educational program should take these needs into consideration. We discuss the application of the survey findings in planning in-service education in infection control.