title: Patient education process in teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patient education is widely recognized as a core component of nursing. Patient education can lead to quality outcomes including adherence, quality of life, patients' knowledge of their illness and self-management. This study aimed to clarify patient education process in teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013. In this descriptive quantitative study, the sample covered 187 head nurses selected from ten teaching hospitals through convenience sampling. Data were collected with a questionnaire developed specifically for this study. The questionnaire measured patient education process in four dimensions: need assessment, planning, implementing and evaluating.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall mean score of patient education was 3.326±0.0524. Among the four dimensions of the patient education process, planning was in the highest level (3.570±0.0591) and the lowest score belonged to the evaluation of patient education (2.840 ±0.0628).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clarifying patient education steps, developing standardized framework and providing easily understandable tool-kit of the patient education program will improve the ability of nurses in delivering effective patient education in general and specialized hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Department of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. h.seyedin@iums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Hesam
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seyedin
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. goharinezhad@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Salime
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goharinezhad
authors.affiliation: Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Department of Health Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. vatankhah_s@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Soodabeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vatankhah
authors.affiliation: Department of Treatment Affairs, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran. m.azmal52@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Azmal
keywords: Head Nurse; Patient Education Process; Teaching Hospitals