Objective To explore and develop the Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale （RHDS） for Patients Undergoing Pancreaticoduodenectomy and test its reliability and validity.Methods Guided by the Transition Theory, the initial scale was formed and revised through literature review, qualitative interviews, and two rounds of Delphi expert consultation.A total of 430 patients in the Department of biliary and pancreatic surgery were selected by convenience sampling to examine the reliability and validity of the scale from June 2023 to August 2024.Results RHDS contains 30 items with 4 dimensions.Four common factors （knowledge preparation, personal status, coping ability, and expected support） were extracted in exploratory factor analysis.The cumulative va-riance contribution rate was 62.734%.The overall Cronbach′s α coefficient of the scale was 0.943, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.855.The Cronbach′s α coefficients for each dimension ranged from 0.880 to 0.928, and the split-half reliability coefficients ranged from 0.853 to 0.905. The item-level content validity indexes were 0.866-1.000, and the scale-level content validity index was 0.981.The confirmatory factor analysis showed that χ2/df=1.357, TFI=0.965, CFI=0.965, SRMR=0.046, RMSEA=0.042.Conclusion The scale has good reliability and validity, which justifies its use as a discharge readiness assessment tool for patients with pancreaticoduodenectomy.