From Backroads to Bedside: Overcoming Rural Nursing Education Barriers.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Rural Health Workforce Development

Background:

• Rural areas experience a significant shortage of Bachelor of Science in Nursing-prepared nurses.
• This deficit negatively impacts healthcare access and equity in underserved communities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify barriers hindering rural clinical placements for undergraduate nursing students.
• To introduce a faculty-led immersion model, the Rural Immersion Capstone Model (RICM), as a sustainable solution for rural workforce development.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and synthesis of professional experience.
• Identification of student, faculty, and institutional barriers to rural placements.
• Description of the Rural Immersion Capstone Model (RICM) developed at a Texas public university.

Main Results:

• Identified barriers include financial issues, housing scarcity, limited faculty, and inadequate clinical infrastructure.
• The RICM provides a 2-week embedded experience integrating community engagement and supervised clinical practice.
• RICM offers a structured approach to overcome identified placement challenges.

Conclusions:

• Effective rural clinical education necessitates robust academic-practice partnerships and faculty support.
• Experiential learning models, such as RICM, can cultivate a rural nursing identity.
• Immersion programs show potential for scalable solutions to enhance rural nursing workforce sustainability.