Continued neglect of rural and remote nursing in Australia: the link with poor health outcomes

Abstract

Difficulties facing Australian rural and remote nurses first emerged decades ago and recent Australian Federal Government rural health strategies have promised improvements in health outcomes. However closer scrutiny of the funding allocation supporting these claims reveals that although nurses provide the majority of health care, they receive only a small fraction of funding support. Successive rural health strategies have continued to overlook nurses’ concerns regarding the nurse - practice environment interface. This persistent lack of political support stifles organisational support for the nursing role, resulting in frustration, resignation and diminished health care delivery. Meanwhile, rural and remote population health outcomes fail to show signs of improvement.