THE STATUS OF RURAL NURSING IN AUSTRALIA: A REVIEW

ABSTRACT: While much has been written about the practice roles of remote area nurses in Australia, less is known about the role and function of the rural nurse. The majority of rural nurses practise in rural hospitals, community health settings and nursing homes. In contrast, the remote area nurses work setting is generally involved with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander primary health care services. Rural nurses' practice setting is usually located in a larger organisation than that of the remote area nurse. There is usually at least one medical practitioner in the town or on-call close by. Nurses who are employed in the smaller rural hospitals have what has been described as a 'specialist generalist' role. This means that they are required to be multi-skilled and competent in a wide range of nursing and non-nursing practice. In contrast, nurses who work in base/provincial hospitals, may have either a generalist or specialist role. This paper provides a summary of the literature on Australian rural nurses and develops some of the themes contained therein.