As critical as these efforts are, including other advanced practice health professions is important. Oftentimes, nursing and advanced practice registered nursing (APRN) students are excluded from these opportunities in favor of medical students, a significant error. With such a dire need that will only increase as the population ages, inviting as many disciplines as possible into the healthcare provider tent is key. Nurses account for the largest number of healthcare providers and interact with patients more, including frequency and duration, especially in hospitals, and the educational pathway is comparatively more accessible. And APRNs could help fill the physician gap by performing a majority of the same healthcare functions. Additionally, training APRNs from ethnically diverse backgrounds to work in rural areas can address one of the biggest impacts of the shortage - trust. Patients appreciate and trust healthcare providers who look like them and understand their community and value system. Affinity builds trust, and trust improves compliance. Since rural residents are more likely to die from chronic diseases, improving compliance can really move the needle. It seems logical for rural healthcare facilities to be very intentional in their efforts to attract nursing students and newly licensed nurses.
What hospitals can do While rural hospitals may feel helpless in the face of a historic talent shortage, there are steps they can take and examples they can follow. Here are a few of them:
● Become a collaborator with nursing programs at nearby universities and community colleges. Working with schools with immersion programs that start early in the academic journey is important so students can discover the joy of delivering healthcare to an underserved population. It is imperative to identify students who want to work in those communities.
● Encourage healthcare teams to participate in provider panels featuring primary and specialty areas of interest for students. This gives rural healthcare professionals a chance to interact with future nurses, and students can acquire knowledge about working in a rural hospital setting.
● Host a “day in the life” event where students can shadow nurses in rural areas and see what their day entails as part of the senior preceptorship experience. These types of programs are already up and running, especially at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and would be an excellent expansion to the final senior clinical experience.
