Rural and remote areas are the places located outside major cities. Residents of these places are identified by the sources of their income which include: pastoralism, farming, mining, and tourism. Such areas are usually inhabited by the older population, and hence, the health risks are higher as compared to other areas. Additionally, people living in those areas may suffer a shortage of health services. The shortage might be caused by a low number of health professionals in the area and inhibit access to medical services due to the poor infrastructure of these regions.
The purpose of this paper is to define the critical role nurses play in rural areas as well as highlight some of the challenges that they face. Another objective of this position paper is to identify activities that should be carried out by the nurses. It is clear that working in hardship areas is a big challenge that requires more than just adequate professional skills. Working in a hardship area requires dedication so that to perform duties effectively while still being guided by the NMBA code of ethics.
Rationale
Working in the rural and remote areas requires nurses with advanced practice skills due to the level of difficulty that the nurses go through in such places as it is hard to secure medical facilities in such areas. Nurses in the rural and remote areas have to handle more work than the average nurses handle; as such, nurses must attend more patients. Working in such areas results in isolation as one is limited to the amount of information that he or she can access due to poor technology. People living in these remote areas face health challenges that can be attributed to the level of life and lack of relevant information.
On average, people in rural areas are less informed as compared to those living in urban areas and/or other more developed places. Consequently, nurses in those areas have to attend more patients than in urban or more developed areas.
Assumptions
It is assumed that the nurses working in such an environment are motivated by the Nurse ethics governing the nurses. They, therefore, cannot fail to go to the assigned regions. It is also assumed that the nurses who go to rural areas have no choice but to deliver quality services to those locations.
The other assumption is that the scope of research followed a standard way of statistics collection and a sample is taken to review their role is accurate. A sample taken is assumed to be a representation of the actual population of all nurses working in rural areas. Also, due to the code of ethics, it is assumed that the nurses deliver their duties to the maximum and that they provide the service purely in a professional manner with no personal relationship with the patients.
Position Statement
Nurses in rural areas play a critical role in helping local to access health services that would otherwise be hard to attain. By providing the patients with a diagnosis and curative measures, the nurses play a critical role in reducing the pressure that could, however, be vested on the advanced medical units.
Most of the nurses working in rural and remote areas have a wide range of skills due to variation of cases that they handle. The nurse must be well equipped with a broad knowledge of various issues to help the patient or tackle different problems. Such problems include the following: child health, the main constituent population in rural areas is the children. Hence, the nurse must be able to deal with almost all problems associated with the development of infants so as to help reduce the major issue of child mortality.
Immunization is an issue that might arise unexpectedly to caution any outbreak. It’s the duty of the nurses to ensure that if a directive to give an immunization is issued, all the parties exposed to the danger get the right immunization. It is a critical role that the nurses have to play if they are asked to or in case of infants; they have to conduct regular immunization. Patients with chronic diseases who cannot afford home care are mostly sent to rural areas. It is the role of the nurses to look after such individuals. Hence, they should be equipped with the technical know-how on handling such cases.
In rural and remote areas, the nurses must help in guiding the new mothers on the ways of handling the baby. Most mothers in such areas are not well equipped with the knowledge of how to handle their newborns. Nurses must ensure that they help the mothers cater for their children needs effectively by providing them with the information they need.
The worst condition facing the nurses in rural areas is poor working conditions combined by the heavy workload. Working in such harsh conditions where the nurses face a major problem of isolation from information calls for higher remuneration of those nurses. In order to be motivated to provide medical attention to the patients, there are several steps that should be taken to ensure that the nurses remain in their code of conducts as follows:
The Australian Government, by means of the Department of Health and Ageing, should fund a project to be implemented at the national level that seeks to ensure that National Nursing Organization competency standards that guide the advanced registered nurses. The organization could ensure that all nurses, including those working in rural and remote areas, are guided on the best practices to undertake. The body will ensure the observance of rights and privileges of the nurses and fair treatment through fair remuneration according to the amount of hardship that each nurse faces.
Recommendations
The government should work closely with the non- governmental organizations including the public sector to evaluate different conditions that the advanced nursing practitioners work. Some areas require more than just the advanced nurse’s attention; in such areas, it might be impossible for the nurse herself to cover all the demands that might arise. So as to ensure that this particular plan is effective, the state should establish a particular nursing department headed by a director who will give instructions to all the nurses. Having a nursing director can be far much beneficial to advanced nurses since it would give them a sense of representation. Setting a department to purely handle the complaints from the nurses and to review their working conditions regularly would give the nurses a sense of security. Through this department, they could raise their complaints without the fear of intimidation as they will not have to wait for the trade union to negotiate better terms with the government.
It is the role of nurses working in rural areas to function as a team. The nurses must cooperate with other nurses in other regions so as to ensure effective service to all team members including the society that the nurse is working in. It is particularly important for the nurses to compare trends in different locations with the data that they collect from their location. All nurses in rural areas must collect appropriate data so that it becomes easy to identify the trends that might come up in those areas. However, it is difficult for nurses to work as a group since in most cases, they work individually. Being alone leaves them with no option, but to act as if they were a group. To ensure that there is effective workgroup between various individual nurses, it is important to have good communication means between various agencies. Both the government and the private sector should ensure that the means of effective communication between various nurses in the field are established. Clear communication means allow them to work as a group that ensures that there is no inconvenience caused by the breakdown of communication between the various parties.
It is the role of nurses working in rural areas to function as a team. The nurses must cooperate with other nurses in other regions so as to ensure effective service to all team members including the society that the nurse is working in. It is particularly important for the nurses to compare trends in different locations with the data that they collect from their location. All nurses in rural areas must collect appropriate data so that it becomes easy to identify the trends that might come up in those areas. However, it is difficult for nurses to work as a group since in most cases, they work individually. Being alone leaves them with no option, but to act as if they were a group. To ensure that there is effective workgroup between various individual nurses, it is important to have good communication means between various agencies. Both the government and the private sector should ensure that the means of effective communication between various nurses in the field are established. Clear communication means allow them to work as a group that ensures that there is no inconvenience caused by the breakdown of communication between the various parties.
The nurses in rural and remote areas have the role of ensuring that they are committed to both professional respects of the conduct and collaborative models of care. Professionalism ensures that they underpin that particular level of nursing practice. Working in rural and remote areas requires a higher level of commitment than working in other more favorable places. The nurses working in such conditions must be personally motivated to help since the challenges that they face in such places might be much for an average person to handle. The nurses have to handle various medical cases and report to the appropriate authorities within the time frame given as the standards require them to do. However, being in such areas means that they cannot communicate effectively with other practitioners. Since frustration in such areas is a challenge to many nurses, they must be willing to go beyond professional borders.
Nurses working in remote areas are mostly the only medium of communication between the public and health policy providers. They have to disseminate any information that comes from medical practitioners directed to the public and also collecting and submitting the data required from the citizens for comparison with other areas.
The nurses have a role to play in educating the public on how to avoid different kinds of medical conditions and on how to prevent diseases. The community health worker cannot be successful on his/her own in guiding the public on various issues such as nutrition. The nurses must, hence, join the educating team in delivering the information so as to ensure that there are minimal cases of diseases and infection. Such information includes information on nutrition where the nurses educate the public on the best practices in nutrition to avoid diet-related conditions.
Conclusion
Nurses in the hardship areas have a crucial role to play despite the hardships that they might face. It is their role to ensure they provide services to the host communities in the most effective way so as to ensure that people receive medical benefits. Despite the challenge, the nurses have to look for their sources of motivation and ensure that they do not deviate from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia code of ethics. However, their remuneration should be based on various factors set up by the department.
To strike a balance in the level of remuneration, they should be paid according to their level of skills. The higher the level of skills a nurse has the more cases he or she will have to handle. Isolation from information is also a key factor that should be considered while determining the amount to be paid to nurses.
