e used in a particular health care setting such as a nursing home (Meisel, 1995); (4) Impediments to interdisciplinary collaborative efforts in health care delivery (Hill & Becker, 1995) or integrated services and/or medical delivery and care systems (Phillips-Harris & Fanale, 1995); (5) An obstruction to the delivery of quality patient care (Ferrell, Dean, Grant & Coluzzi, 1995; Shapiro & Lenahan, 1996); (6) An obstacle preventing patients from being discharged or transferred to an appropriate level of care (Holloway, Restuccia, Goldberg & Fuhrer, 1977); (7) Factors interfering with or disrupting compliance with a patient's medical regime (Salazar, 1995);
(8) Blockages to the implementation of developed health care programs (Jensen & Saylor, 1994); (9) Institutional factors constraining or restricting nurse career development (Gifford & Kimbro, 1984); (10) A nurse practice related to infection control (Curran, 1994).
Barrier is also a frequently used (though seldom explicitly defined) term in the field of education. An review of the literature revealed that the term "barrier" or "barriers" is often used when referring to: (1) factors that stop individuals from practicing safe sex (Wendt & Solomon, 1995);
(2) variables that place constraints upon the integration of educational technology (e.g., computers) into the school system; for example, Evans-Andris (1995) discussed the fact that computer specialists are limited in their endeavors because of various structural and social conditions of their work and environment which were designed as "barriers;" (3) an impediment to learning such as in Joyce's (1995) comments on the "edubarrier" defined as similar to the sound barrier, in which learning is tethered by social-psychological factors; (4) educational practices that operate to impede equatable funding to schools (Polansky, 1995); and/or racial/ethnic integration among students (Bollin & Finkel, 1995); and (5) factors that de...