RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Validating a Web-based D n

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleIntroduction Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) is a felt need for nurses in many areas such as diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus as a costly, chronic disease, [1] affects increasing numbers of people worldwide. Its prevalence among adults (20–79 years) will increase to 7.7%, affecting 430 million adults by 2030 [2]. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes melli-tus (T2DM) in Iran by 2025 is estimated at 6.8 % [3]. Patient with diabetics are hospitalized more than the general population. While a holistic approach to care (by experts) is needed to diminish the effects of this complex health problem [4], there are some studies indicating a lack of diabetes knowledge among nurses. For example Uding et al. observed that over half of the participant nurses lacked up-to-date knowledge about diabetes and a per-centage had never participated in continuing diabetes edu-cation programs [5]. In another study, participants scored a mean score of 64 % on a basic knowledge test which indi-cated a lack of knowledge about diabetes [6]. Therefore