Beyond Urban Places

Abstract

Intimate partner violence is a recognized public health problem impacting the lives of women, families, and communities. Women in rural and more remote areas who experience IPV face unique barriers and challenges to accessing healthcare services to support healthy outcomes. Resources, access to services, presence of compassionate and informed healthcare providers, and environmental circumstances influence effective responses to this issue in rural and more remote areas. In a public health approach to this problem, prevention efforts, victim-centered responses, and the support of safety are imperative to improve outcomes for women. Forensic nurses play an important role in effective response by building linkages across health, human, and social systems through collaboration, partnership, activism, advocacy, and sensitivity to the issue across the rural landscape.

Examination of Attitudes of Nursing Students on Dating Violence

“…Likewise, Aslan and colleagues (2008) reported that the students who live in the village until the end of elementary scholl period exposed to more violence in their current dating relations than those living in provinces and districts (Aslan et al, 2008:37). Neill and Hammatt (2015) point out that partner dating violence in rural field is more prevalent in their study of the severity of dating violence in rural and urban areas (Neill, & Hammatt, 2015:93). Edwards (2015) noted that the likelihood of dating violence is similar in urban and rural areas when studying the prevalence of partner violence in urban and rural areas (Edwards, 2015:369).…”

Responding to the Challenges and Barriers Unique to Rural Appalachian Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Programs

“…More compelling than the measurable barriers of poverty and geographic isolation lies a hidden layer of cultural challenges for rural patients of sexual assault (Edwards, 2015; Lutgendorf, 2019; Neill & Hammatt, 2015). Although more difficult to quantify, the complex sociological challenges rural patients of sexual assault face are no less difficult to navigate.…”

Health Care Professionals, Rurality, and Intimate Femicide

“…Battered women in rural areas are often overlooked or ignored in research (Websdale, 1995; Websdale & Johnson, 1998, for review of studies comparing IPV in rural and urban areas see Edwards, 2015) despite victimization experiences in rural settings being very different and affected by several key issues such as geography, isolation, subcultural attitudes surrounding gender, enforcement officers, economic disadvantages, education level, and availability of services (Dudgeon & Evanson, 2014; Neill & Hammatt, 2015). IPV research tends to focus on the urban setting while ignoring “space and place,” which implies little to no difference between rural and urban locales (Pruitt, 2008).…”

“…Websdale (1998) provided support for this in which shelter workers in rural areas disclosed that many rural women have more difficulties obtaining help due to lack of financial resources. Research indicates that lack of income is also a factor that makes it more challenging for women to leave a violent relationship (Averill, Padilla, & Clements, 2007; Eastman & Bunch, 2007; Neill & Hammatt, 2015). Expanding on this, Peek-Asa et al (2011) found that a third of women in rural areas did not have any type of insurance coverage and Laditka, Laditka, Olatosi, and Elder (2007) found that rural residents are more likely to be uninsured than urban residents, making it even more difficult to afford proper health care and social services.…”

“…This geographic isolation to services is made even more difficult by the lack of public transportation in rural areas (Bledsoe, Yankeelov, Barbee, & Antle, 2004; Neill & Hammatt, 2015). Stommes and Brown (2002) found that public transit was only available in half of rural counties nationwide, making it necessary for inhabitants to drive long distances to access social or medical services (National Rural Health Association, 2002; Van Hightower & Gorton, 2002).…”