en عمومى General پژوهشي Research Background: Therearemanyperformanceobstaclesinintensivecareunits(ICU)thatcanwasteanurse&rsquo;stimeandenergy. Detectionandeliminationof theseobstaclescanimproveefficacyinICUs. Objectives: ThisstudywascarriedouttoidentifytheperformanceobstaclesexperiencedbynursesinICUsof selectedhospitalsin Kashan,Iran,2015. Methods: In this descriptive analytical cross-sectional study, all 80 nurses working in ICUs reported their performance obstacles in 240 working shifts. The research instrument had 2 parts: 1- information of nurses and their working shift; 2- nursing performance obstacles questionnaire of Gurses. The questionnaire evaluates performance obstacles in 4 dimensions of environment, task,technology,andorganization. ThedataanalyzedwiththedescriptiveandanalyticalstatisticsincludingMann-WhitneyUand Krukall-Wallistests,andmultipleregressionanalysisusingSPSS16. Results: The most common obstacles were: receiving too many phone calls from family members (75%), delay in getting medicationsfrompharmacy(54.6%),insufficientspacetositdownanddopaperwork(52.9%),anddisorganizedunit(51.6%). Inthefieldof technology, havingtouseequipmentinpoorcondition(35%)wasthemostfrequentobstacle. Delayinseeingnewmedicalorders (48.3%)andinadequateinformationfromphysicians(30.4%)wereothercommonobstacles. Thenurseswithlessthan3yearsof experienceworkinginICUs,thoseworkingmorningshifts,andnurseswhohadadmittedmorepatientsreportedsignificantlymore obstacles. Conclusions: Nursing performance obstacles were different. Many obstacles such as receiving too many phone calls and having touseequipmentinpoorconditioncanbemanagedbysimpleinterventionssuchasusingtechnologytogiveinformationtothe familymembers.Managementpoliciesandenhancingteamworksareneededtoreduceobstaclessuchasinadequateinformation from physicians and disorganized unit. We need further studies, to evaluate how the elimination of these obstacles can improve thenursingcareinICUs.<br> Keywords: CriticalCareNursing,IntensiveCareUnits,WorkPerformance,BarrierandPerception 1 6 http://jccnursing.com/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Zahra Rajaeian 10031947532846001740 10031947532846001740 No Negin MasoudiAlavi 10031947532846001741 10031947532846001741 Yes