Background & Aim: Insertion of chest tubes is a necessary measurement in chest trauma. The trauma patients need specific skills for self-care. This study aimed to determine the effect of using supportive-educative system on self-care skills in trauma patients with chest drainage system .

  Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 62 trauma patients with chest-tube were selected from three surgery wards of Besat hospital in Hamadan from December 2012 to May 2013. Two wards were randomly allocated into the experiment group (n=31) and one ward was allocated into the control group (n=31). Participants were selected using convenience sampling. The supportive-educative system was designed based on the patients’ needs and was implemented to the experimental group in three consecutive days. The study instruments included self-care needs assessment form and self-care skills checklist. Measurements were completed once the patients were admitted to the wards and three days later by an external observer. Data were analyzed using t-test, Chi-squared test, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests with a 95% confidence level in the SPSS-16 . 

  Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups in the study variables at baseline (P>0.05). Although self-care skills in both control (P<0.01) and experiment (P<0.001) groups were improved, using educative-supportive system led to better self-care skills in the intervention group in compare to the control group (P<0.001) .

  Conclusion: In general, self-care skills of patients with chest drainage system could be improved by supportive-educative system. The improvement in the control group can be attributed to self-care trainings conducted routinely by doctors and nurses .