Aims To (a) assess patients' interest and perceived capability of participating in haemodialysis; (b) assess nurses' perceptions of patients’ interest and perceived capability of participating in haemodialysis; and (c) examine associations between patient characteristics and interest and perceived capability of performing haemodialysis self‐care. Design Cross‐sectional, questionnaire‐based study. Methods Data were collected from dialysis patients and their nurses between October 2018–May 2019. Patients’ interest and perceived capability of participation were assessed by a 10‐item Likert‐type scale developed and tested for this study, with responses ranging from 1 (not interested/no perceived capability) to 5 (already doing task independently). Multivariate linear regression was used to assess the relationship between patient characteristics, including age, sex, education level and severity of illness to ratings of activation level and haemodialysis self‐care scale scores. The STROBE checklist was used as a guideline for this study. Results Ninety‐one patients and 31 nurses participated. Overall, patients expressed interest (2.43 ± 0.93) and perceived themselves capable (2.34 ± 0.9) of participating in various haemodialysis‐related tasks. Nurses assessed lower interest (2.19 ± 0.77) than patients, but similar average capability (2.31 ± 0.8). Both greater interest and perceived capability were correlated with more years of education and higher patient activation; additionally, interest was associated with disease severity and perceived capability was associated with age. Conclusion Haemodialysis patients are interested and perceive themselves capable of participating in the tasks involved in dialysis care. Nurses underestimate patient interest in participation. Relevance to clinical practice Self‐care behaviours among haemodialysis patients are important, as they may affect quality of life and survival. Determining interest and perceived capability of participation is a first step towards evaluating the feasibility of self‐care in a supervised haemodialysis setting.