There appears to be various barriers to the implementation of a patient education
program. Mullen et al. suggest that the practice of delivery is not systematic and that nurses
opinions limit the amount of information patients receive. As well, health care professionals
are often uncertain who bears the responsibility for educating the patients. Health care
professionals feel that scheduling constraints, lack of time to train new staff, as well as change
in practice are often cited by nurses as inhibiting their ability to adopt a new patient education
program.