Broadening their horizons: A rural and urban nursing student exchange program in primary care

Educational strategies that allow students to experience patient care in both rural and urban settings are imperative to the recruitment and retention of nurses for medically underserved populations or health professional shortage areas. Two state schools of nursing (one urban-oriented and one rural-oriented) in the Mid-Atlantic region were awarded Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) project funding to educate nursing students and registered nurses in community-based primary care settings. This article will discuss an innovative rural-urban baccalaureate nursing student exchange model intended to increase understanding of enhanced RN roles in community-based primary care settings. Two project teams collaborated to create a new learning model, a rural-urban exchange, by implementing a Primary Care Camp. The camp included shared didactic content, reflection exercises, historical and cultural considerations, and clinical immersion to allow students in both programs to have on-site rural and urban learning experiences. Faculty collected informal voluntary student feedback through a debrief after their Primary Care Camp experience to assess their understanding of the enhanced RN Role in primary care and how it may affect their future nursing practice. Student feedback suggests that the students met project goals and appreciated the rural and urban exchange experience. This project is an innovative approach that offers guidance for implementing primary care education in a way that supports the current primary care RN role, builds the future workforce, and provides suggestions for replicability.