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Palliative care by nurses in rural and remote practice
Author(s) -
Rosenberg John P.,
Canning Debbie F.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
australian journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.48
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1584
pISSN - 1038-5282
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1854.2004.00591.x
Subject(s) - palliative care , nursing , medicine , rural health , rural area , qualitative research , nursing practice , perception , psychology , sociology , social science , pathology , neuroscience
Objective: To evaluate the experiences of a group of rural and remote nurses in providing palliative care and to discuss the implications of this evaluation for the development and implementation of professional support strategies.Design: Semi‐structured survey comprising 23 items measuring perceptions of the nature of rural and remote practice, the provision of palliative care in these settings and the appropriateness of various professional development strategies; as well as 12 open‐ended questions to obtain qualitative descriptions relating to key concepts in rural and remote practice.Setting: Rural and remote communities in the Southern zone of Queensland Health.Subjects: Thirty‐one registered and enrolled nurses, all female, who attended a two‐day professional development workshop.Main outcome measures: Identification of characteristics of, barriers against and strategies to support the practice of palliative care in rural and remote communities.Results: High levels of agreement with key statements relating to issues evident in contemporary literature regarding rural and remote nursing practice; qualitative descriptions show congruence with key statements.Conclusions: This evaluation demonstrated congruence between the challenges faced by this group of nurses and those reported in the literature. These nurses identified the importance of peer networking as an integral part of their work, which enhanced their potential as rural and remote palliative care providers.What is already known: The issues faced by nurses in rural and remote communities have been described in previous studies. For the most part, these had not specifically targeted the practice of palliative care in this setting. It was not clear whether the practice of palliative care brought distinct challenges to nurses.What this paper adds: This paper adds to the growing body of knowledge about the professional development needs of nurses in rural and remote communities in relation to the practice of palliative care. It suggests that the nurses surveyed in this study share many challenges in common with nurses practising rural and remote settings. Palliative care is understood to be an integral part of practice, despite the infrequency of palliative care clients and the diverse roles they carry out. Barriers to professional development related to geographical and professional isolation are shared in common. An imperative emerges to identify professional development strategies that are directly relevant to rural and remote settings, to improve access to professional development resources and to promote sustainable peer support networks.