identification of nursing management planning standards in iran

background: in recent century, planning is one of the most important care skills for health service development. nurses should be ready scientifically for managing situations in order to develop and perform appropriate models for patient care. it is necessary for manager to know about the process and standards of planning and how to apply them in real conditions. with regard to importance of health care planning and lack of nursing management planning accreditation in iran. methods: this triangulating research was carried out between 2004 and 2006. fifty professional nursing managers in different level of iran medical universities and central hospitals, having experience in nursing management at least for five years, and an ms or bs degree in nursing management, were included in a study through purposed sampling. at first, a pilot study with an open questionnaire was conducted in isfahan and shiraz and then the study went on in 3 phases including searching for international standards in method by 15 professional nursing manager after consensus on 70% and sending the final was used for data analysis. at last standards for nursing management planning were obtained in iran. results: 48 standards of nursing management planning were obtained. the findings showed that most of the standards were accepted (90%) and there were not any standards with agreement lower than 70%. these standards, accompanied with the standards of other nursing units, can be used for quality improvement. the researcher suggests the ministry of health to use these findings and other related ones to accredit the nursing system and to identify its deficiencies. key words: nursing management, standards, accreditation