Background: Different studies have shown that health level, performance statutes and quality of life in chronic patients are less than the expected level especially in patients with diabetes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a self-care program with a multimedia software support on quality of life in patients with diabetes type II. Patients and Methods: This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 60 patients who had been referred to the diabetes clinic of Arak city were randomly divided to experimental (n = 30) and control (n = 30) groups. Diabetes Quality of Life Brief Clinical Inventory was used for determining the quality of life. Data were collected before and two months after the intervention for both groups. An educational program with equal content was conducted for both the experimental group (self-care program with multimedia software support in two sessions) and control group (lecture and presentation with PowerPoint in one session). Data analysis was made by the SPSS 16 software. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups in mean scores of quality of life before the intervention (P = 0.97) while after the intervention, the difference between the two groups was significant (P = 0.029). Applying the self-care program with software support improved quality of life of the experimental group after the intervention (P < 0.0001) while there was no significant difference in mean score of quality of life in the control group after eight weeks (P = 0.051). Conclusions: According to the results of this study, the examined method is a simple, cheap, effective and attractive intervention program for patients with diabetes.

Introduction: Education is the most effective and economical part of diabetes treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a training program with multimedia software on the knowledge and self-care behaviors of patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled clinical trial in which 60 patients referred to diabetes clinic at Arak city were divided randomly into experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The instruments for collecting data were "Summary of Diabetes self-care activities questionnaire" and "knowledge of self-care in patients with diabetes". Data were collected before and 2 months after the intervention in the both groups. Educational program with equal content was applied for both experimental group (self-care program with multimedia software support) & control group (lecture and presentation with PowerPoint). Data analysis was done using SPSS Ver.13. Results: Implementation of the self-care program with multimedia software support resulted in improvements in patients’ self-care behaviors in the experimental group, whereas these behaviors had not significant changes in the control group after eight weeks. There was a significant difference in the mean score of knowledge in both the experiment and control groups before and after the intervention. Conclusion: Considering beneficial effects of training program with multimedia software support on the knowledge and self-care behaviors and the importance of this issue, suggested that the patients preferably provide terms of use of educational software for themselves.

Background: Nurses have critical roles in the process of medication. Evaluating the process of medication helps nursing educators and students to determine the present status and then, improve the quality of care. Objective: The current study was conducted to compare the self-evaluation of nursing students in their own medication skills with the evaluation done by clinical instructors, in Qom's Azad University and Arak University of Medical Sciences, in 2011. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted. Data gathered using a self-report questionnaire and an observation checklist. A total of 141 students and 10 instructors participated in the study. SPSS software (version 13) was employed to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon rank test were used. Results: The mean scores for the domain of medication preparation were 2.51 ± 0.55 and 2.58 ± 0.57 based on the students' self-evaluation and the instructors' evaluation of the students, respectively. No significant difference was observed between the total mean scores of 'medication preparation' in the two evaluation methods (P > 0.05). The highest mean score was achieved in the domain of drug administration both in the self-evaluation and evaluation by the instructors. A significant difference was observed between the total mean scores of 'drug administration' in the two evaluation methods (P < 0.05). The domain 'post medication nursing care' has got the lowest mean score among the three domains both from the perspective of the students and that of the instructors. The mean scores of different domains of medication management were close in the two universities. Conclusions: The present study showed that the nursing students are not quite competent in the process of medication therapy both from their own and their clinical instructors' perspectives. This finding shows the urgent need to implement some actions to strengthen the students' skills in medication therapy.

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Introduction: Currently, the concept of leadership has come to be greatly appreciated in clinical education, due to its potency in predicting the efficacy of clinical programs. The present study was carried out to set forth the procedural guidelines of situational leadership style in clinical education for nursing students. Methods: The present review study was conducted through searching databases, such as Proquest, PubMed, Elsevier, Wily, Magiran, and SID, for five keywords including leadership, situational leadership, clinical instructor, clinical education, and nursing student. Eventually, a total of 33 articles, found relevant to the study, were selected and reported. Results: The results were presented under core concepts such as situational leadership model and procedural guidelines of situational leadership in clinical education. Based on situational leadership in clinical education, the levels of clinical educators' supportive and directive leadership behaviors manifest four different styles, including telling, selling, participating, and delegating, which should be employed commensurate with the students' readiness and, in case the students' level of readiness in doing a particular activity changes, the leadership style should change accordingly. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that enhancing the nursing educators' leadership skills is of utmost importance for achieving greater clinical efficacy; therefore, educators should apply situational leadership to clinical education.