Rural health care--in the "future perfect"

Rural health care can thrive if innovative tactics are used. Four assumptions can influence how health care occurs in rural areas. One assumption is to view the world in a "both/and" view of human phenomena. Second is to recognize that competition is a dominant mode; and that using integrative/collaborative solutions could enhance all health care. Cultural ethnocentricity and professional ethnocentricity, the third assumption, are counterproductive. This is especially true in rural America. The fourth assumption, one can only accomplish what one can imagine, sets an infinite range of possibilities for rural health care. Education must change to incorporate a commitment to collaboration and to integrative, innovative solutions to problems.