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Objective: Diabetic management process requires nurses with expert knowledge and patient care skills. This study was carried out to identify nurses' diabetic care approaches and their post graduate education needs in order to develop a "Basic Diabetes Patient Care Education Program" in a university hospital in Turkey. Methods: The descriptive study, using the survey technique, was carried out in a university hospital with 87 bedside nurses who were caring for diabetic patients. Investigators developed data collection tool consisting of closed ended questions and opportunities for open-ended responses. Results: Among the 87 nurses, 88.5% were staff nurses, and 11.5% were nurse managers. The mean age was 27.41 ± 4.82 and years of professional experience was 6.86 ± 4.23. The 41.4% of nurses stated that they were caring for 1-2 patients with diabetes per week and 72.4% of nurses stated that they had attended an educational session about diabetes after graduation. The 95.4% of nurses reported a need for a continuous education program for diabetes patient care. Medication regimen (69.0%) and special care applications such as wound care (54.0%) were the most needed educational requirements. There were no difference in educational needs based on basic education or years of professional experience (p>0.05). Conclusions: Nurses caring for patients with diabetes should be supported by orientation, in-service education and continuing education programs. Additionally, the placement of patient care courses for chronic diseases, like diabetes, into the core curriculum of nursing schools would be useful in responding to actual patient care and family needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]