Objective: This study aimed to develop a scale to assess inpatient nursing care expectation scale (INCES) in China and determine its reliability and validity. Methods: A three-phase approach was employed to develop and validate the INCES: (1) scale development, (2) scale refinement, and (3) psychometric validation evaluation. The items of the instrument were generated based on a comprehensive literature review and a qualitative study involving 14 inpatients. The preliminary evaluation of the items was conducted through content validity assessment by a panel of 16 experts (2 round, 14 experts in each). Validity and reliability analyses were performed using two independent samples to refine the scale and evaluate its psychometric properties. Sample 1(321 inpatients) was employed for item analysis, internal consistency assessment, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Sample 2(224 inpatients) was employed for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the assessment of additional psychometric properties, (i.e., convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity), which further confirm the structure of the scale and evaluated its final psychometric properties. Results: The final version of INCES consists of 21 items distributed across three dimensions: structure (8 items), process (9 items), and outcome (4 items). EFA and CFA showed that the three-factor model had a good fit, with a cumulative variance contribution rate of 78.159% and a factor commonality of 0.533-0.938. Additionally, the scale demonstrated satisfactory convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.94, indicating high internal consistency. Conclusions: The results confirm that the INCES exhibits robust reliability and validity, meeting the standards for use in assessing inpatients’ expectations of nursing services.