The Rural Nurse. Transition to Practice

Description

"Transitioning to rural practice can be daunting for both experienced nurses and new graduates who have an urban orientation and are accustomed to specialized practice with abundant health care resources. Since most nursing education programs and practicing nurses are located in urban settings, programs are needed to prepare nurses who choose rural practice. In their book, Dr. Molinari and Dr. Bushy provide excellent examples of practice models from North America, New Zealand, and Australia with curricula that address transition issues. The text makes a significant contribution to the discussion about how to best prepare nurses for rural practice and will be of interest to administrators, educators, and clinicians.
From the Foreward by Charlene A. Winters, PhD, APRN, ACNS-BC
Associate Professor
Montana State University College of Nursing

This is the only volume to address the pressing need for practical information about transitioning from an urban-based nursing education or practice to a rural health care environment. It provides successful strategies that nurses in rural settings can use to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative programs that will meet the needs of individual rural communities. The book details current rural nursing transition-to-practice trends and issues, national standards, and evidence-based model programs worldwide. Rural practice culture is described along with professional education issues, competency, patient care, and safety.

Chapters are presented in easy-to-access formats that offer ready solutions for problems commonly encountered in rural practice such as nurse recruitment and retention. In addition to health care delivery issues for specific rural populations, the book presents program descriptions from local to state levels, including locally developed education programs, urban hospital systems outreach to rural facilities, universities collaborating with rural businesses, city-based workshops, statewide competencies tracked by employers, and a distance education program customized by rural agencies. Case studies demonstrate how rural facilities-even the smallest and most isolated-are advancing health care through nurse support. The text will be of value to rural nursing staff developers, critical access hospitals and community clinic administrators, rural professional organizations, small urban health facilities, continuing education providers, nursing workforce centers, and graduate programs.

Key Features:

• The first transition from academia-to-practice guide for rural nursing
• Charts evidence-based successes and offers model programs in different rural settings
• Provides rural-specific information to facilitate statewide health mandates
• Features residency program development processes, with tips and tools that work

Author Bio

Deana Molinari, PhD, Rn, CNE, is Associate Professor, Education Masters Program, Idaho State University and President, Rural Nursing Organization, where she founded their Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care. She also currently reviews for the Journal of Nursing Research, Journal of Rural and Remote Health, Journal of Affective Disorders, American Journal of Distance Education, Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health, and HRSA publications. She was Founder/Director of Rural Health Communications, a non-profit to facilitate information sharing, and has served as a general practicing nurse, consultant, supervisor, hospice nurse, school nurse, and in orthopedics, ER and pediatrics. She has received 20 grants (including 3 with six figures in rural nursing issues), has published 25 peer-reviewed journal articles and other non-refereed articles, has chapters in 10 books, has produced 6 digital products (in telemedicine, hospice, education, pharmacology, careers), and has presented at numerous local, regional, national and international meetings.

Angeline Bushy, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Professor, Bert Fish Endowed Chair, School of Nursing, University of Central Florida, and a major presence in rural health nursing. Clinical appointments have included 345 Combat Support Hospital, Jacksonville, FL, with rank of Colonel; 328th General Army Hospital, Salt Lake City, with rank of Major; Active Duty, Desert Shield/Desert Storm with 328th Station Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany; Director of Nursing Services, McLaughlin Community Hospital, McLaughlin, SD; and more. She has 60+ peer-reviewed journal articles to her credit, has contributed to numerous textbooks from major competitors, has guest edited two journals: Family and Community Health and Journal of Rural Health, and is currently on the editorial review board for Nursing Outlook with previous similar appointments to ResourceNurse.Com, International Journal of Rural & Remote Health, Home Healthcare Nurse, International Journal of Nursing Studies, Nurse Educator, and so on. Dr. Bushy wrote the Foreword to Springer'sRural Nursing: Concepts, Theory, and Practice, 3rd edition by Winters & Lee.