Prof Jean Ross - Global Rural Nursing Exchange Network

Rural Road to Health

Prof Jean Ross is a professor of nursing at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand with many years of experience advocating for rural health and rural nursing. She is a member of the Global Rural Nursing Exchange Network leadership team.

Episode summary:

00.45 Could you tell us about your professional background and how you became more involved with rural health?

06.06 What is the state of rural nursing in New Zealand? What role do nurses have in NZ rural health systems?

10.53 What is the Global Rural Nursing Exchange Network?

12.57 What are some of the challenges that nurses face when wanting to work in rural areas?

14.42 What does the Global Rural Nursing Exchange Network do?

17.44 How can the network support students and nurses?

19.12 Do you collaborate with any other healthcare networks?

22.08 What are your plans for the year ahead?

27.10 Are you looking for any collaborators for any upcoming projects?

28.00 Where can people learn more about GRNEN?

Key Messages:

In the early 1990s there was a big movement around rural health in New Zealand led by general practitioners who were raising the issues of maintaining care in rural areas.

In 1994 the first Centre for Rural Health was set up in New Zealand, Jean worked on this with Martin London.

Last year (2023) the first ever National Rural Health Strategy was established and is now part of the government mandate in New Zealand.

Rural nursing has changed significantly over the last 30 years relating to legislation and regulation. Movement for continuing education for nurses and the Health Practitioner Competence Act.

Survey on nursing on the South Island - it was not just practice nurses looking after the population, there were nurses with many different titles. It looked at what is their practice, what they do, how they are paid, who does what, why and how, how are they supported and what is their education. The survey found that they required a specific tailored education and a support network. In 1996 a postgraduate certificate was established for rural primary care supported by the University of Otago.

The Global Rural Nursing Exchange Network (GRNEN) was formed so that rural nurses could share and exchange their experiences with others globally. Due to COVID19 physical exchanges were not possible.

Education can be one of the challenges faced by nurses in rural areas, there is isolation, limited transportation, lack of access to services. The majority of nurses are women and often take on additional responsibilities in their personal lives and in the community. This can affect the time, space and access to continuing education.

GRNEN established and online space for rural nurses to connect, talk together, support each other and learn from each other. On the website there is a virtual library of resources which is free to access.

GRNEN is developing a number of educational modules for rural nurses, exploring rurality and career development.

GRNEN has a focus on students, there are a number of grants available for students to exchange their understanding or rural practice with a counterpart form another country.

CHASE Model - Community Health Assessment Sustainable Education Model. This model has three stages and 11 phases.

GRNEN: https://www.grnen.org/

CHASE Model: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-43201-9

https://thescopes.org/assets/scopes/SCOPE_HW5_060-Ross-et-al.pdf

Thank you for listening to the Rural Road to Health!

Rural Health Compass