Presented by Dr Kathryn McAuley, Department of General Practice and Rural Health

To create a sustainable rural nursing workforce, an understanding of both the satisfying and challenging aspects of the role is essential. The limited research in this area has found that issues of ethical care can arise in rural settings, but has thus far largely focused on a GP perspective.

This presentation will discuss the themes that emerged from a study analysing the perspectives of rural nurses regarding their roles, including ethical challenges. Two qualitative methods of data collection were used—focus groups and interviews—and two different geographical locations were surveyed. Key themes will be discussed, including comparisons with the limited overseas data available.