Objective To construct a head nurse caring behavior index system for the purpose of helping and guiding head nurses to properly assess their own humanistic caring competency and behaviors. Methods An initial version of the head nurse caring behavior index system was established through literature review and expert interviews.Then the initial index system was subjected to 2 rounds of expert consultation by using the Delphi technique. Afterwards, analytic hierarchy process(AHP） was used to determine the weights of all-level indexes. Results Expert response rates were 88% for the first round, and 100% for the second round; expert authority coefficient was 0.81, the coordination coefficients of the experts for the 2 rounds ranged from 0.120 to 0.358.Finally, the head nurse caring behavior index system, which has 3 first-level indexes, 7 second-level indexes and 36 third-level indexes, was established. Conclusion The head nurse care behavior index system was scientific and reliable, and it can be used to evaluate the caring behaviors of head nurses.It can also provide references for future development of a more complete and scientific head nurses′ caring behavior evaluation tool.