Problems Solving
High-quality healthcare services should be accessible to everyone, yet, due to imperfections in the infrastructure of rural areas, people living in the specified environment may have difficulties accessing healthcare. There are other barriers toward healthcare in rural areas, which include the lack of health literacy, qualified staff members, and effective nurse-patient communication (Halter et al., 2016). However, by improving the reciprocity between a patient and a nurse with the help of different types of media, one can address the issues temporarily, at the same time working on long-term goals such as building new facilities in the vicinity of rural households.
The problem of service accessibility coupled with alterations in demographic levels within rural communities can be seen as the key barrier to delivering healthcare services to rural residents. As Krout explains, “The combination of a lack of formal services and demographic changes affecting rural communities and families may put rural older adults at risk of social isolation”. The described issue concerns both infrastructure and the lack of qualified staff members in the rural healthcare context. For this reason, reconsidering the quality of patient-nurse communication should be seen as the primary task, whereas long-term goals will include creating more employment options and training opportunities for nursing experts in rural settings.
Conclusion
The application of innovative media tools to encourage the patient-nurse conversation while new facilities are planned to be constructed and the infrastructure is being updated should be regarded as important options for improving care for rural residents. The described approach will also help to increase the rates of health literacy among the target population, thus preventing the instances of severe health issues. By maintaining communication with the rural population and keeping the community informed about the available options for health management and treatment, a nurse will contribute to managing public health issues successfully.
References
Halter, J. B., Ouslander, J. G., Studenski, S., High, K. P., Asthana, S., Woolard, N., Ritchie, C. S., & Supiano, M. (2016). Hazzard’s geriatric medicine and gerontology (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Professional.
Krout, J. A. (2015). Providing services to rural older adults. In K. M. Hash, E. T. Jurkowski, & J. Krout, Aging in rural places: Policies, programs, and professional practice (pp. 119-132). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.