Rural Women Veterans' Experiences Receiving Women's Health Care at Veterans Health Administration.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Rural Health
• Women's Health

Background:

• The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) initiated the Rural Women's Health Mini-Residency (WH-MR) program to enhance primary care providers' skills in delivering sex-specific care.
• Prior evaluations confirmed improved provider competence, but the experiences of rural women Veterans with WH-MR-trained clinicians remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate rural women Veterans' perspectives on women's health services received from WH-MR-trained clinicians within VHA primary care settings.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews.
• Thematic analysis was used to analyze data from rural women Veterans receiving primary care within VHA clinics.
• Key areas explored included participant satisfaction, access to care, perceived provider expertise, and barriers to women's health services in rural environments.

Main Results:

• Four key themes emerged: overall satisfaction with VHA women's health primary care, particularly screening and follow-up; perception of limited or unavailable women's health services within primary care; concerns regarding primary care teams' ability to maintain expertise in a male-dominated system; and challenges accessing care due to distance, transportation, and privacy.
• Despite the Rural WH-MR program, inconsistent service availability and limited resource awareness were reported.
• Participants expressed doubts about provider experience with less frequent procedures like pelvic exams due to lower patient volumes.

Conclusions:

• The Rural WH-MR program improves provider readiness, but women Veterans' experiences highlight deficits in access, communication, and visibility of women's health services in rural VHA primary care.
• Further training, proactive outreach, and tailored support are crucial for equitable and consistent women's health care delivery across the VHA system.