Rural and Remote Nurses

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Running head: RURAL AND REMOTE NURSES
Rural and Remote Nurses
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Rural and remote nurses are the nurses who get opportunities to serve the public in areas
which are not urban, but those which are rural and which have poor conditions. Though these
nurses face some challenges in rural and remote areas, they also enjoy some benefits. A nurse is
required to be registered in order to offer services to patients. It is significant that nurses meet
certain requirements which would enable them to be registered and hence be employed in rural
and remote areas (Bradford, Caffery and Smith, 2016). This is because working in such areas is
not easy and, therefore, it requires great qualities in order to serve the community effectively
(Summers, 2015). This piece of work aims at discussing advantages and challenges which rural
and remote nurses face from workplace support as well as a strong and committed community.
Part A
Advantages of Workplace Support
Rural and remote nurses enjoy several advantages from the support that they get in the
workplace. They enjoy several services and facilities offered by the managers of the health
centers as well as their employers such as free transportation and hardship allowances. Rural and
remote nurses have to travel or walk for long distances in order to reach their workplaces. This is
due to the transportation systems which are also not well put (Moran et al, 2014). They also walk
for long distances to access professional training. Therefore, in order to avoid these problems,
they are provided with a transportation means which enables them to access the developmental
professional training and the health care centers. (Rohatinsky and Jahner, 2016). This makes sure
that the public needs are addressed. Hardship allowances are also offered in the rural and remote
areas because their conditions are not friendly; they are too mountainous and the environment is

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challenging, in general. Therefore, they are given an extra payment which enables them to
survive in this area by being able to afford the various costs which they incur in their work
(Goodridge and Marciniuk, 2016).
Additionally, the support which the rural and urban nurses gain from colleagues in the
workplace fosters their personal experiences and their professional efficiency. Rural and remote
nurses are able to be given directions by the doctors and managers who have been in such areas
for some years on how to carry out certain professional activities (Onnis and Pryce, 2016). They
are accounted for by being assigned a colleague who would help him or her experience some of
the basic knowledge about the environment as well as about various medical procedures.
Through this, they are helped to apply the knowledge and skills which already have to the real-
life situations in nursing. They are also shown various ways in which they can carry out certain
activities. This improves their knowledge and hence their efficiency in the provision of services
to the community (Morell, Kiem, Millsteed and Pollice, 2014). Precisely, they are able to gain
knowledge and skills through the guidance they are given, hence boosting their experiences in
the rural and remote areas. Their services to the public are, therefore, at a higher level since they
gain more knowledge and skills development on these areas.
Challenges of Workplace Support
Despite the benefits which rural and remote nurses gain from these areas, there are also
challenges which are associated with the support which such nurse experiences. One of them is
that rural and remote nurses lack evidence which they can base their practice on (Roden et al,
2015). Though they are given support by other professionals, they face the challenge of acquiring
technological resources which are required for them to effectively carry out a study. This is
because nurses require a lot of resources which they are supposed to use in order to gather a

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variety of data from the community. Additionally, the small population size of the community
makes the rural and remote nurses to experience difficulties since the population is much
distributed (Wakerman et al, 2017). This means that spreading the sample population over a
wider area targeting a higher population would be expensive and would require more resources
which the health centers cannot afford. (Barrett, Terry, Le and Hoang, 2016) Comparing to their
counterparts in suburban as well as in urban areas, they are unable to assume that all the
resources are available. This is because, in urban and suburban areas, there are many research
groups as well as resources which they can benefit from. However, in rural areas, nurses are not
able to access services from these research groups (Sutton et al, 2016). Additionally, the
suburban and urban areas have higher populations which can help in the collection of data. This
is significant because it is cheaper to collect data from an area where there are no issues of
traveling to long distances looking for the targeted population.
Additionally, the support which the rural and remote nurses are given disadvantage them
because of the high expectations which are demanded from them. It is expected of them to
comply with what they are being directed to do because they are professionals (Hendrickx and
Winters, 2017). However, the conditions in these areas may too adverse in a way that the nurses
are not able to adapt to a point of meeting perfection or effectiveness. For example, the nurses
may be expected to be at the working place at a certain time. Yet they are offered transportation
facilities, the topography and the nature of the environment may disadvantage their vehicles
(Marcin, Shaikh and Steinhorn, 2016). They may not be at a position of being understood by
their managers or colleagues since they are given transportation means. The terrain and the
topography of these rural and remote areas may be too harsh in a way that the vehicles bring
about problems at a faster rate (Rohatinsky and Jahner, 2016). For instance, when a vehicle is