Background The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia corporates performance improvement strategies in health sector to transform hospital operations and instituting a culture of quality through performance improvement initiatives. Quality of nursing care (QNC) is a concern for nursing professionals and administration. Donabedian's ‘Quality‐of‐Care’ framework plays a vital role in transforming nursing care and determining appropriate intervention development and implementation plans. Aim To explore the nurses' perception for the QNC and find their perspectives in achievements and gaps by adopting the Donabedian model. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted on a convenience sample of 639 nurses from a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia using Karen‐personnel instrument for measuring QNC. The achievements and gaps in nursing care quality determined by redistributing Karen statements to the three dimensions of the Donabedian structure, process and outcome model. Findings The nurses' overall perception of the QNC was positive. According to the Donabedian model, the nurses focussed on care procedures (i.e., process‐oriented) and required resources (i.e., structure‐oriented), although the transformation era requires nurses' performance to focus on the outcome dimension. Conclusion To activate the vital roles of nurses in accomplishing health transformation initiatives, there should be collaborative efforts among nursing managers, educators and policy‐makers to sustain quality of structure, process and outcome‐oriented nursing care and be more outcome‐oriented.