Need topic ideas for a paper on rural nursing trends/issues

[cathmandu]

I have to write a 5-7 page paper for my 400 level nursing class.

The paper has to be on a topic related to the issues or trends in rural nursing. I thought I would get some ideas from practicing rural (or urban) nurses about what affects them most.

Some generic ideas include but are not limited to:

Active living in Rural Areas

Ageing-in-Place approaches and challenges in Rural Areas

Recruitment and Retention of Nurses to Rural Areas

Continuing competence for generalist skillsets in rural nursing

Regionalization of Health Care Impacts on Rural Health

Aeromedical transport and rural emergency stabilization

Medically Assisted Dying considerations in rural/remote setting

Chronic pain management considerations including Opioid use

Health Promotion for Rural Children Living in Farming Environments

Virtual or Technology use (e.g. Telehealth/Tele-monitoring) and Rural Nursing

If you have a specific idea surrounding anything listed above, I'm all ears! Or if you have a brand new idea, comment below!

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Moved to nursing student assistance

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

There's a ton in the literature these days about tele-health. You'll find plenty of recent sources.

[bitter_betsy, BSN]

I live in a rural area. So rural in fact that a house in my city limits - directly across from the fire department - burned down due to only a volunteer fire staff (and no one came). When a hurricane was coming towards us, we were under mandatory evacuation. My fella had just ripped open his hand and had a number of stitches, but was helping a neighbor load her car and busted open his hand again. There wasn't a single person in our city that could tell us if a trip to the hospital was necessary. So for us in this small town - we don't have EMS close by. If we have an emergency, it will take at least 15 minutes to get an ambulance here and then depending on which hospital - there are 3 within about 20 miles but they are all very small hospitals and it takes time to get to them. I can only imagine the trickle down effect extended time periods have on the nurses when patients from our city (and other small local cities even more remote than ours) show up with not only their issue but additional issues from delayed care.

Just food for thought.

[OnlySlightlyBonkers]

I think retention is a big one with nurses in rural. Maybe focus on the support aspect and nursing ratio in rural facilities. There should be a lot on that.

When mother nature doesn't cooperate then the air ambulance in my region doesn't fly. With all this smoke I've had a few critical patients denied air ambulance. Think of how this impacts the patient, understand the trickle effect.. not every rural EMS team has an advanced care paramedic... so who goes with the patient from the facility by ground ambulance? How does this impact facilty services? How does this impact the patients in the facility? How does this impact the community the facilty serves?

Hope this helps.

[verene, MSN]

Access to prenatal and maternity care in rural locations as more rural hospitals either close or close down their OB/GYN and L&D units due to cost. We have rural counties in my state that do not have a single ob/gyn or midwife working in them, meaning women may have to drive very long distances for care.