Objective To explore the needs of telenursing among community-dwelling older adults who are completely independent in activities of daily living or who are mildly disabled, and to provide reference for improving remote care quality. Methods A questionnaire survey aiming to telenursing needs of the elderly was conducted among 251 community-dwelling elderly persons who were selected using convenience sampling and then data were analyzed based on the Kano model.Results Chi-square goodness-of-fit test showed there were significant differences between actual and expected counts for each item of telenursing needs (P<0.01 for all), indicating the sample had specific individual preference to Kano category. The desired degree of telenursing service ranged from 52.59% to 68.13%, the better values (satisfaction) were between 52.48% and 67.21%, and the worse values (dissatisfaction) were 14.88%-36.44%.The items of "remote one-button emergency caller" and "remote emergency assistance arrangement" were considered to be one-dimensional qualities by the elderly, "remote life needs call" and "remote care needs call" were regarded as indifferent qualities, and the rest were evaluated as attractive qualities. In the quadrant analysis diagram, all the remote care services were categorized as attractive qualities.Conclusion The community-dwelling elderly with ADL dependence or mild impairment have positive attitudes toward telenursing service, especially the needs of remote first aid nursing. Medical policy makers and nursing managers can provide targeted telenursing service according to customers′ requirements, thus to improve nursing care quality and satisfaction of the customer.