Planning and Providing End‐of‐life Care in Rural Areas

Abstract

Although rural EOL care research is not extensive, the existing literature is helpful for realizing the importance of EOL care in rural communities, as well as for conceptualizing and planning EOL care in rural communities. One of the chief considerations for rural EOL care is that dying at home is a common wish, with home-based nursing care a key factor for this to become a reality. Another chief consideration is ensuring all rural health care professionals are both prepared for and supported while delivering EOL care.

Assessing End-of-Life Preferences for Advanced Dementia in Rural Patients Using an Educational Video: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Furthermore, studying differences in rural-urban end-of-life care is vital for making palliative care services available to all patients regardless of geography. 5,6 Variations in the use of end-of-life care services between the elderly in rural and urban settings are known to exist, 7,8 with rural populations tending to use fewer medical interventions at the end of life than those in urban settings. [9][10][11][12][13] Such variations may be attributed to a variety of factors including different access to medical services, 3,14-16 expectations of patients, 3 race, [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] and rural-urban cultural differences.…”

Rural–Urban Differences in End-of-Life Care: Implications for Practice

“…Geographic differences in health care service delivery emerge from a variety of factors that include population density, per capita supply of hospital beds and physicians, proximity to an academic medical center, and the nature of the local health care workforce (Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, 2006;NHHCS, 2000;Wennberg et al, 2004, Wilson et al, 2006. Fewer providers, hospitals, clinics, and community-based services are available in sparsely populated and isolated areas, thus providers may be located great distances from someone who is in the advancing stages of an illness (NCHS, 2006).…”

Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative: Building Palliative Care Capacity in Rural Minnesota

“…The majority of the ruralrelevant literature available comes from other countries and includes little information about operational structures. [3][4][5][6][7] Research is also lacking on models that incorporate partnership and capacity building that should be considered in rural settings. 8 Supporting the urgency to address palliative care capacity is the disproportionate and growing population of older adults, many of whom have serious illnesses and reside in rural communities.…”