Abstract
Aim. This study aimed to compare physicians’ and nurses' perceptions of futile care.
Background. Futile medical care is the provision of medical care or treatment to a patient when there is no reasonable hope or chance of a benefit. Determination of perceptions of futility is crucial to reduction of situations leading to futility and end-of-life decision-makings.
Method. The present study is a descriptive-comparative cross-sectional study in which 114 nurses and 57 physicians working in intensive care units of selective teaching hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were recruited by convenience sampling method based on the inclusion criteria. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire of futile care perception whose validity and reliability was assessed by experts, test-retest and Cronbach's Alpha methods. The Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics in SPSS software version 16.
Findings. The mean score of physicians’ and nurses’ perceptions of futile care was 77.29±13.79. The mean score of nurses’ perception was 78.46±14.4, turned out to be higher than that of physicians (74.91±12.3). The highest level of consistency between the two groups was related to the item "ineffective communication" and “disregarding the members in the decision-making process by the ICU attending physician”. As for "stressfulness of futile medical care", nurses experienced higher stress levels and there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups in this regard.
Conclusion. The agreement on the most important factors affecting the perception of futility indicates consistency between physicians’ and nurses’ perceptions of futile care. The high perception scores in both groups, and the stressful nature of futile medical care require necessary training mechanisms needed to deal with such situations.

Abstract
Aim.  This study aimed to determine barriers to patient education from the perspective of patients, nurses and doctors.
Background. Patient education is one of the indicators of quality of heath care services. Patient education could lead to a reduction in the cost of health care and increase the quality of care and ultimately, help the patient to become independent and self-sufficient.
Method. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. The research population included physicians, nurses and patients admitted to different wards of the Rajaee cardiovascular medical and research center. The sampling method was stratified random sampling for each population of the participants (patients, nurses and doctors). Data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire that measured the obstacles to patient education. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software.
Findings. According to physicians, the most important barriers to education for patients was related to patients, and then related to physicians. From the viewpoint of nurses, the most important barriers to patient education were related to nurses. Patients evaluated themselves as the most important barrier to patient education, and then, the most important barriers were  related to nurses from patients’ perspectives.
Conclusion. Regarding the importance of teaching to the patient, it is suggested that the managers take actions to increase the number of nursing staff, provide patients with educational brochures, allocate sufficient funds for patient education, supervise and encourage nurses and doctors, and prioritize training in daily tasks.

Abstract
Aim. This study aimed at examining the convergence of calculated HEART pathway by physician and nurse along its utility to predict the 3-month occurrence of major adverse cardiac even (MACE) in patients with chest pain admitted to emergency department (ED).
Background. The HEART pathway is a tool to predict MACE in patients with chest pain admitted to ED, to help risk stratification for early discharge and reduce unnecessary cardiac tests.
Method. In the present study, a diagnostic tool was evaluated. Ninety-seven ED patients with acute chest pain, hospitalized in Rajaie Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center, were recruited prospectively. Risk stratification was performed by an ED nurse, a cardiology resident, and a cardiology attending physician. The correlation and the 3-month MACE outcomes were analyzed. 
Findings. Pairwise agreements were excellent between the raters. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) among raters were 0.84 (95% CI: 0.73–0.97) and thus, overall agreement was excellent. The HEART pathway score showed a high predictive power (AUC: 0.85 for 3-month MACE). For a cut-off score of 4, sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive values were 87.5, 58.9, and 95.8 percent, respectively.
Conclusion. The HEART pathway score predicted effectively 3-month MACE in patients with acute non-traumatic chest pain. The high agreement among the three different raters suggests that nurses might use efficiently the score.