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Regarding nursing practice and patient care, the concept of barrier has been used in relation to diverse medical/nursing practices. Most frequently, the concept of barrier has been used to refer to:
(1) An obstacle to access or utilization of health care services and or a factor that disrupts the delivery of patient care services (Hurtado, Barber & Borton, 1996; Peterson, Kinnenman & Turner, 1996);
(2) Any impediment or obstacle to the funding of nurse education (Weeks, Starck, Liehr and LaFontaine, 1996);
(3) A restriction of the range of nursing practices that can be 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).
Significance of the Concept For Nursing
As can be seen in the just delineated list, the concept of barrier is one that is often found in the nursing literature. Not only is the use of the term frequent but it is applied to a vast variety of phenomena in the nursing field. It seems reasonable to suggest that the applications and important of the concept to the field of nursing will be more thoroughly u...