Reflections on Practice: Defining Rural Nursing Care

This paper is the result of reflection on and content analysis of five studies in rural nursing by two independent research teams: one in south-west Victoria (three studies), the other in southern Queensland (two studies). The studies explored the nature of rural nursing work, the experiences of rural nurses and patients, and one attempt to promote an alternative mode of rural nursing service delivery. The major focus of this paper is the world view of nursing contained in the participant's experiences of rural health care and nursing in particular. The findings of the studies are examined to identify the concepts of care expressed by the participants and the role these concepts have in building a much needed conceptual framework for rural nursing education and practice.