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). Conclusion: 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
