For nurses who are interested in the teaching and educating aspects of nursing, rural communities provide an excellent platform. There is an increasing need for the development of wellness clinics and nurses can play a fundamental role in their development (Fuszard 43). For people who identify themselves as having strong organizational and leadership skills, this could be an ideal opportunity to showcase them and put them to functional use in society. .
Another opportunity in rural nursing exists in rural hospitals themselves. Nurses in rural hospitals can often gain a wider variety of experiences and encounter broader health problems than in urban hospitals. Whereas nurses in large medical facilities tend to work in a specific unit and deal with a certain type of patient, rural nurses are often expected to deal with all aspects of patient care (Jezierski 327). A nurse working in a rural hospital may work with pediatric, cardiac, and trauma patients all in one day. This offers a great deal of variety and can prove to be a wonderful experience for the nurse who enjoys challenge and a multitude of different experiences. This also means that a rural nurse must be proficient and skilled in almost all areas. They must also be extremely flexible and be able to adapt and learn quickly. In a rural healthcare community, these qualities are just as important to possess as clinical knowledge and skill. One major difference between rural nurses and those who work in larger communities is that rural nurses are granted a much greater degree of autonomy (Sharp 22). They must be willing to guide their own practice, as they may be one of the few healthcare workers in a hospital at any given time. Physicians are not as readily available in rural settings; therefore nurses must be willing to fill in the gap (Sharp 24). They make more decisions and are expected to be more self-directed than they would be if they worked in an urban setting.
