Rural Health Nursing: A Global Perspective

Nursing in rural areas throughout the world characteristically deals with issues that are of interest and concern to public health nurses. A literature review of international rural nursing research was initiated in response to an observation that a noticeable quantity of published research addressing rural nursing is completed outside of the United States. This review included international rural nursing research published between 2003 and 2007 and was conducted utilizing the CINAHL and Medline databases. In total 41 articles were reviewed and organized based on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), which categorizes countries based on development status. The HDI index provides a standardized means to compare quality of life among countries and to measure the impact of social and economic policies on quality of life. This critical review of international rural nursing research yielded three major organizational themes: articles outlining clinical issues; articles describing aspects of nursing practice; and articles discussing nursing and health policy research. Despite the variety in international locale of the research, these themes and other common findings emerged. Most frequently, the discussion of rural focused on the work of nurses in settings where they have few colleagues, insufficient knowledge to meet the needs they identify, and little access to continuing education. Staffing was a significant concern in both inpatient and community settings in the rural and remote regions. The need for increased access to specialized nursing knowledge, resources, and support is a continued issue facing nurses in rural and remote settings. In the community, the importance of the nurse as a member of the community served was a consistent theme. Cultural learning is a never-ending process. All nurses who choose to engage in research or practice with international colleagues are well advised to continually examine personally biases and to draw heavily upon the wisdom of those who live in the culture.