Identifying and Accommodating Education/Research Barriers of Rural Nursing Staff in the Mississippi River Delta

Abstract

Background: Rural settings comprises about 20% of the nursing workforce practice. The literature suggest rural nursing staff do not have the same opportunities for continuing education or the implementation of research in their practice as do nursing staff of larger urban hospitals. Rural nursing staff face unique barriers in obtaining the needed continuing education and research. Identifying and accommodating these barriers is needed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify by survey, what education and research barriers exist for operating room and post anesthesia care nursing staff in the rural hospitals of the Mississippi River Delta.

Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study using a one-sample t-test was implemented. Cronbach’s alpha for reliability and Shapiro-Wilk for normal distribution was performed. Thirty-one subjects from three rural hospitals in the Mississippi River Delta volunteered for the study. Basic statistical demographics were obtained, while preserving the subject’s anonymity.

Results: The top 3 barriers to continuing education and implementing research in practice are identified and discussed. Education barriers (M = 1.62, SD = .02362, n = 28) chosen by the subjects is statistically significant. Research barriers chosen by the subjects (M = 1.7586, SD = .13427, n = 28) is also statistically significant. Suggestions for accommodating these barriers was explored for translation of the research into practice.

Conclusions: Barriers to continuing education and research implementation do exist in rural hospitals in the Mississippi River Delta. A clear strategy to assist rural hospitals to accommodate these barriers needs to be developed. Alternative partnerships and education systems are two accommodations that are described and can be implemented. Further study is needed in the areas of hospital funding and collaboration efforts to assure the educational needs of rural nursing staff are met. In addition, further study is needed using a larger sample size to establish generalizability and to increase the power of the statistical testing.