Background:  Cultural intelligence and adaptive performance development are central interests for today's healthcare organizations, nurses as health professionals increasingly need to be able to adjust behaviors to changing work situations which is essential to provide bias-free and culture-based care in nursing. Aim of the Study: Investigate the relation between cultural intelligence and adaptive performance among nurses. Design: A quantitative, descriptive and correlational design was conducted in this study. Setting: In 11 critical care units, including the intensive and intermediate care units at Benha University Hospital. Subject: A convenience sample of 300 nurses who were available and worked directly with patients. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection; The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CIS) and the Adaptive Performance Scale (APS). Results: This study displays that more than half of the studied nurses had moderate cultural intelligence levels and more than half of nurses had moderate adaptive performance levels. Conclusion: Nurses had a moderate level of cultural intelligence and adaptive performance. There was a statistically significant and highly positive correlation between adaptive performance and cultural intelligence and sub dimensions. Recommendations: The hospital administration should implement supportive policies that will ignite and stimulate the attributes of nurses, resulting in increased effectiveness and efficiency, and conduct in-service training sessions to enhance cultural intelligence and adaptive performance.