Are rural and remote patients, families and caregivers needs in life-limiting illness different from those of urban dwellers? A narrative synthesis of the evidence.

This review aimed to assess the evidence to answer the question whether palliative end-of-life care needs of patients and caregivers in rural and remote communities differs from those of urban dwellers. Peer-reviewed studies from 1996 to the present dealing with the experience of rural and remote patients and caregivers at the end-of-life compared with that of urban people were extracted for narrative synthesis. The eight studies included showed that palliative needs of rural and remote residents are related to context.

What do graduate registered nurses want from jobs in rural/remote Australian communities?

Aim: To explore and describe the needs of new graduate registered nurses in a rural and remote (R&R) setting within Australia.

Background: Rural practice has distinctive challenges for nurses. Nurses make up the largest and most widely distributed health workforce in Australia, outnumbering doctors 8:1 in R&R areas.

Supporting rural/remote primary health care placement experiences increases undergraduate nurse confidence.

This paper reports on the analysis of data from undergraduate nursing students who participated in the Primary Health Care Intensive Programme (PHCIP) in far west New South Wales between 2006 and 2008. This analysis looks specifically at pre/post confidence levels of participants in relation to their grasp of underlying principles associated with primary health care practice and Indigenous health care delivery. Bachelor of nursing curricula remains heavily weighted towards acute care in large metropolitan facilities however; universities actively seek clinical fieldwork experiences in rural/remote and Indigenous communities for their students.