“…Theorists describe rural nurses as belonging to a separate subdiscipline of nursing (Bushy & Baird-Crooks, 2000). The rural nurse is a specialist with a generalist focus (Molinari, Hudzinski, & Monserud, 2008) caring for patients across the lifespan and with health issues in six nursing subspecialties: medical or surgical, obstetrics, pediatrics, geriatrics, psychiatrics, and emergency or trauma nursing (Baumann, Hunsberger, Blythe, & Crea, 2006). Nurses are cross-trained to many skills, work autonomously, and assume multiple roles in small facilities of less than 25 beds.…”