Barriers to the Implementation of Nursing Process From the Viewpoint of Faculty Members, Nursing Managers, Nurses, and Nursing Students

Introduction: The nursing process is defined as a standard of care; however, its implementation in actual clinical settings is very limited, which reduces the quality of care. Objective: To determine the barriers to the implementation of the nursing process from the viewpoint of the faculty members, nursing managers, nurses, and nursing students of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out in 2014 on 90 nursing lecturers and students of the Mashhad Nursing and Midwifery Faculty, and 134 nurses and nursing managers of the educational hospitals of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The participants were selected by the convenient sampling method using a research-oriented questionnaire (validity and reliability confirmed) to investigate the barriers to the implementation of the nursing process. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics (mean±SD, and absolute and relative frequencies), one-way ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: The most significant barrier to implementing the nursing process according to 90% of the lecturers was the lack of a checklist for recording the process in the medical records of the patients; according to 90% of the managers, it was the high number of patients under care of each nurse, and according to 90% of the nurses and 93.5% of the students, it was the lack of a principal training of the nursing process during their studentship. There was a significant difference in the views of the four groups (P=0.03). Conclusion: The health system authorities of the country should make changes in the clinical and educational areas, such as including a nursing process record sheet in the medical records of the patients, getting advice and assistance from the experts in the field of nursing education and technology, and facilitating the implementation of the nursing process in the clinical field.