General Rural Health Issues
A number of issues expressed by rural clinicians giving care in rural communities.
PsycINFO
Accession Number: 2005-04178-003.
Warner TD. Monaghan-Geernaert P. Battaglia J. Brems C. Johnson M E. Roberts LW.
Ethical Considerations in Rural Health Care: A Pilot Study of Clinicians in Alaska and New Mexico.
Community Mental Health Journal. 41(1):21-33, 2005 Feb.
Full text via ProQuest
Online intervention has been found to be beneficial for chronically ill women living in rural areas to help manage their illness.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 15520598
Hill WG. Weinert C.
An evaluation of an online intervention to provide social support and health education.
CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing. 22(5):282-8, 2004 Sep-Oct.
Full text via Ovid
Socioeconomic, political, and cultural beliefs impact on rural adult populations with chronic illness and disability.
PsycINFO
Accession Number: 2004-13285-002.
Levy, Patricia.
Rural health care intervention: Medical social work practice with adults with physical and chronic disabilities.
Rural Social Work. 8(2):17-26, 2003 Dec.
Rural nursing requires practitioners to execute a variety of advanced skills beyond their basic level of education and training.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 10953692
Hegney D. McCarthy A.
Job satisfaction and nurses in rural Australia.
Journal of Nursing Administration. 30(7-8):347-50, 2000 Jul-Aug.
Full text via Ovid
Resources to address behavioural health care needs in rural areas. Links to PDF articles about rural health and a US-centred resource list.
American Psychological Association Rural Center for Behavioral Health
Research into issues of health care access with a view to improving services and access to care particularly in rural and northern areas.
Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (Laurentian University)
A volunteer association of organizations that promote the survival and development of Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities
Coastal Communities Network
This site highlights issues that impact on rural health in the US.
National Rural Health Association
Research network and resource centre for Atlantic Canada.
The Rural Centre
Professional organization for rural doctors.
Society of Rural Physicians of Canada
A number of issues expressed by rural clinicians giving care in rural communities.
PsycINFO
Accession Number: 2005-04178-003.
Warner TD. Monaghan-Geernaert P. Battaglia J. Brems C. Johnson M E. Roberts LW.
Ethical Considerations in Rural Health Care: A Pilot Study of Clinicians in Alaska and New Mexico.
Community Mental Health Journal. 41(1):21-33, 2005 Feb.
Full text via ProQuest
Rural nurses identify “emotional toil” as a key issue to caring for cancer patients in rural settings. Clinical supervision is an important strategy to support clinicians.
CINAHL
AN: 2009731520 NLM Unique Identifier: 18039253.
Kenny A. Endacott R. Botti M. Watts R.
Emotional toil: psychosocial care in rural settings for patients with cancer
Journal of Advanced Nursing. 2007 Dec; 60(6): 663-72.
Findings of this literature review include that rural and urban women receive different primary treatments for breast cancer, that rural women may have greater difficulty negotiating their traditional gender roles during and after treatment and that rural women desire greater health-related information about their breast cancer
CINAHL
AN: 2009688166 NLM Unique Identifier: 17611958.
Ann Bettencourt B. Schlegel RJ. Talley AE. Molix LA.
The breast cancer experience of rural women: a literature review.
Psycho-Oncology. 2007 Oct; 16(10): 875-87.
Online intervention has been found to be beneficial for chronically ill women living in rural areas to help manage their illness.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 15520598
Hill WG. Weinert C.
An evaluation of an online intervention to provide social support and health education.
CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing. 22(5):282-8, 2004 Sep-Oct.
Full text via Ovid
Socioeconomic, political, and cultural beliefs impact on rural adult populations with chronic illness and disability.
PsycINFO
Accession Number: 2004-13285-002.
Levy, Patricia.
Rural health care intervention: Medical social work practice with adults with physical and chronic disabilities.
Rural Social Work. 8(2):17-26, 2003 Dec.
A protocol between the acute cancer treatment provider and the family physician, particularly in rural areas, would help cancer patients understand where to turn for ongoing surveillance.
Miedema B. Tatemichi S. MacDonald I.
Cancer follow-up care in New Brunswick: cancer surveillance, support issues and fear of recurrence
Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine 9(2):101-7, 2004.
Available online:
A community strategy to improve psychosocial functioning in geographically and economically isolated women with primary breast cancer.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 12848832
Angell K. Kreshka MA. McCoy R. Donnelly P. Turner-Cobb J. Graddy K. Kraemer H. Koopman C.
Psychosocial Intervention for Rural Women with Breast Cancer: The Sierra Stanford Partnership
Journal of General Internal Medicine. 18(7):499-507, 2003 July.
Rural nursing requires practitioners to execute a variety of advanced skills beyond their basic level of education and training.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 10953692
Hegney D. McCarthy A.
Job satisfaction and nurses in rural Australia.
Journal of Nursing Administration. 30(7-8):347-50, 2000 Jul-Aug.
Full text via Ovid
Resources to address behavioural health care needs in rural areas. Links to PDF articles about rural health and a US-centred resource list.
American Psychological Association Rural Center for Behavioral Health
Some of the issues faced by rural patient who need to travel for cancer treatment include: being away from loved ones, maintaining responsibilities during treatment, burden on significant others, travel and accommodation, and financial burden.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 12801249
Martin-McDonald K. Rogers-Clark C. Hegney D. McCarthy A.
Experiences of regional and rural people with cancer being treated with radiotherapy in a metropolitan centre.
International Journal of Nursing Practice. 9(3):176-182, 2003 June.
Psychosocial services to meet patient needs are not easily accessible to many patients who live great distances from a tertiary cancer centre.
Otfinowski P. Christian SM. Mackenzie WD. Handman M. Bultz BD.
Psychosocial oncology care, beyond the tertiary cancer centre
Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine 8(2):107-11, 2003.
Available online:
Research into issues of health care access with a view to improving services and access to care particularly in rural and northern areas.
Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (Laurentian University)
A volunteer association of organizations that promote the survival and development of Nova Scotia's coastal and rural communities
Coastal Communities Network
Identification of topics for family practice cancer care curriculum for practitioners in rural areas.
McLinden, D; Ha, A; Setliff, A
Development of a cancer care curriculum for rural practice
Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine. 7(1):21-25, 2002 Winter.
Available online:
Rural women with breast cancer found support in spiritual/church groups or within their family units. The kinds of groups that rural women with breast cancer experience as most supportive need to be identified so that psychosocial interventions can be matched to breast cancer patients' individual needs.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 11348412
Koopman C. Angell K. Turner-Cobb JM. Kreshka MA. Donnelly P. McCoy R. Turkseven A. Graddy K. Giese-Davis J. Spiegel D.
Distress, coping, and social support among rural women recently diagnosed with primary breast cancer.
Breast Journal. 7(1):25-33, 2001 Jan-Feb.
This site highlights issues that impact on rural health in the US.
National Rural Health Association
Research network and resource centre for Atlantic Canada.
The Rural Centre
QOL as an outcome for cancer treatment has not been studied with rural populations. Descriptions of rural dwellers suggest that their perception of QOL may differ from that of their urban counterparts.
Ovid MEDLINE
Unique Identifier: 11219418
Schultz AA. Winstead-Fry P.
Predictors of Quality of Life in Rural Patients With Cancer.
Cancer Nursing. 24(1):12-19, 2001 Feb.
Full text via Ovid
Professional organization for rural doctors.
Society of Rural Physicians of Canada