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Advanced nursing practice in rural areas: connectedness versus disconnectedness.
- Article from:
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Online Journal of Rural Nursing & Health Care
- Article date:
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March 22, 2008
- Author:
- Conger, Margaret; Plager, Karen A.
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 Rural Nurse Organization. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
Scarcity of health care providers leads to reduced access to health care for rural residents. Better understanding of constraints confronting nurses in rural practice is needed. Our program prepares Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) to work in rural areas. Using interpretive phenomenology we studied program terminal outcomes as practiced by our APN graduates. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with graduates who had been in practice for at least one year. This paper describes one theme--rural connectedness versus disconnectedness--that was uncovered in the larger study. Elements leading to rural connectedness included development of support ...