2024/06/04 by Vincenti, Matthew, Arredondo, Kelley, Touchett, Hilary +3
#Graduate Nurse #LPN #LVN #Medicine and Health Sciences #Nurses #Nursing Student #Registered Nurses #Rural Areas #Workforce Development
paper · doi:10.17605/osf.io/x257g
The rural nurse workforce is in crisis. This shortage is due to various factors such as poor workforce planning, workforce leakage, payment incentives, and nursing programs’ geographic location. The shortage of nurses in rural areas negatively impacts the health outcomes of over 50 million Americans residing in these areas. Within team-based care, nurses extend the capacity of providers and their inclusion on healthcare teams has improved patient care. Nurses serve as the care coordinator in team-based care models, tasked with completing critical activities such as patient care coordination for complex and chronic disease management, education, patient messaging, and triage of walk-in patients. While significant resources have been invested in addressing physician shortages, there is a noticeable gap in understanding and addressing the unique challenges faced by rural nurses. This lack of attention is particularly concerning as nurses constitute the largest health profession in the U.S., and their role in rural healthcare is pivotal.