The nature of nursing practice in rural and remote Canada

Recruitment and retention of nurses can be more successful when done with an understanding of the perceptions of nurses in rural and remote communities and in partnership with the communities themselves. [...] Predominant in the advice from rural and remote nurses to new nurses, administrators, educators, and policy makers is the need for more understanding — the need to “learn to listen and listen to learn.” Through learning and listening, there may be greater understanding of the realities of rural and remote practice, with the potential of developing policies, administrative practices, and education [...] Recruitment and retention of nurses can be more successful when undertaken with an understanding of the perceptions of nurses in rural and remote communities and in partnership with the communities themselves. [...] Analysis of the Registered Nurses Database enabled the demographic profile of rural registered nurses to be generated for the first time, both for Canada as a whole and for the individual provinces and territories.13 Systematic analyses of policy and administrative documents undertaken by the documentary analysis team allowed a critical view of the policy context within which rural nurses practise [...] Through our work with the Registered Nurses Database, and for the first time ever, the characteristics of Canada’s registered nurses were analysed at the sub-provincial level, highlighting the similarities and differences between rural and urban nurses in terms of age, sex, education, and employment characteristics.