Developing Cultural Competence in Rural Nursing

Preconceptions of rural lifestyle and culture can color the perspective of future health care providers. To encourage Advanced Practice Nurse (ANP) students to think beyond the mythology about a rural place different than where they practice, two nurse educators and universities teamed up to develop a unique curriculum in which students immersed themselves in a new rural experience. In this innovative curriculum design, students visited a rural Appalachian coal-mining community in an immersion experience to conduct a community assessment and worked with local health care providers in community health education projects in collaboration with a nurse educator and ANP who provides health care to the community through a primary care clinic. The students discovered for themselves the distinctions of rural life in rural West Virginia. This project led to experiential learning and heightened attainment of cultural competence on the part of the students and demonstrated how a collegial effort between nurse educators in two universities and long distance collaboration can benefit students who may someday deliver care in rural communities. INTRODUCTION: DEVELOPING CULTURAL COMPETENCE IN RURAL NURSING Health care providers may have preconceived and even erroneous perceptions of people living in rural areas regarding their lifestyles, health habits, and culture. Although there are some concepts considered to be central to rural people as a whole, the culture of rural areas may vary widely from region to region. Since rural culture can be manifested in many ways and often differs by setting, nursing educators need to consider broadening the perspective of students to a variety of cultural settings in an effort to increase rural cultural competency. The purpose of this article is to describe the collaborative relationship and the unique curricular design of a practicum in which students visited a rural community quite different from their own. They conducted a community assessment, assisted on a community health teaching project, and immersed themselves in a rural community in a coal mining area of West Virginia in order to build cultural competence. This project allowed students to discover for themselves the distinctions of rural life in a unique locale.