title: Palliative care nursing in rural and urban community settings: a comparative analysis.
abstract: Nurses have key roles in the coordination and delivery of community-based palliative care. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between rural and urban community nurses' delivery of palliative care services. A survey was distributed to 277 nurses employed by a community agency in Ontario, Canada, and a 60% response rate was obtained. Nurses reported spending 27% of their time providing palliative care. Rural and urban nurses had similar roles in palliative care but rural nurses spent more time travelling and were more confident in their ability to provide palliative care. Both groups of nurses reported moderate job satisfaction and moderate satisfaction with the level of interdisciplinary collaboration in their practice. Several barriers to and facilitators of optimal palliative care provision were identified. The study results provide information about the needs of nurses that practise in these settings and may provide a basis for the development of strategies to address these needs.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. kaasal@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kaasalainen
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brazil
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Willison
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D009729:Nursing; D010166:Palliative Care; D019035:Rural Health Services; D019037:Urban Health Services