Premium
Education of Health Care Providers for the Rural Setting: A Family Nurse Practitioner Demonstration Program *
Author(s) -
Ryan Rebecca,
Hanson Charlene M.,
Hodnicki Donna,
Dorroh Margaret Wyss
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
the journal of rural health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.439
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1748-0361
pISSN - 0890-765X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-0361.1986.tb00132.x
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , nursing , rural area , rural health , economic shortage , health care , work (physics) , nursing shortage , medicine , family medicine , economic growth , nurse education , government (linguistics) , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , engineering , economics
Spurred by mass concern over shortages of health care providers, the country's educational system has, over the past ten years, produced an ample supply (in some areas a near glut) of health care professionals. Studies demonstrate, however, that these professionals tend to cluster in the affluent metropolitan and suburban areas. Residents of rural areas are still significantly underserved. In the heavily rural southern half of Georgia, this problem has reached a critical peak. Georgia Southern College (GSC) is a rural based college located in the heart of rural south Georgia. In order to address some of the health care problems of its constituency, GSC, with federal support, established a Nursing Department and a Family Nurse Practitioner program with a commitment to recruit nursing students from the rural area, educate them in rural settings, and provide appropriate preparation for the unique experience of working in the rural environment. The program has been very successful in producing highly skilled graduates who do stay and work in the rural areas, providing health care at reasonable costs. This paper describes the setting (rural south Georgia), the need, the program implementation, and the impact (numbers of graduates actually working in rural settings, and innovative projects initiated by graduates).