The rural mother's experience of caring for a child with a chronic health condition: An integrative review

Abstract

There is a need for health professionals to understand the challenges and barriers rural mothers face in accessing services. Nurses can assist rural mothers to navigate and access the appropriate services in order to reduce health inequity, increase accessibility to services and reduce rural disadvantage for their child. Nurses and health professionals are in an ideal position to develop future models of care that optimise health outcomes and enable equity and access to services for rural children with chronic conditions similar to those experienced by their urban counterparts.

Mothers Who Take Care of Children with Disabilities in Rural Areas of a Spanish Region

“…These activities are especially significant for parents of any child, whose birth usually transforms their daily lives. However, these activities take on a special dimension when they are accompanied by chronic health problems or disability of the child [1]. In spite of the fact that there is a wide range of conditions which make it impossible generalize, many families will have to take over care which may extend throughout the child's life, and which also implies a wide range of skills and the investment of much more time than that required to take care of a child who does not have a disability.…”

“…Furthermore, when families of children with disabilities live in rural areas, in many instances, they have to face unique needs and additional barriers, compared to their urban counterparts, which are caused by geographical isolation [21]. Among other aspects, the specialized literature mentions transport difficulties to access rehabilitation services from rural areas, which means hours of travel, socioeconomic impact, and limited access to specialized medical services, social and healthcare resources and rehabilitation processes [1]. Rural areas present a significant deficiency in assistance and support services for mothers in order to provide the adequate care required by children, and there are limited options for the care of persons with disabilities and their families.…”

Care of Children With Disabilities in Rural Areas: Meanings and Impact on Everyday life and Health. Study Protocol

“…When addressing the territorial contexts where children live, it should be considered that families living in rural areas have to face a number of needs and barriers resulting from rurality, such as isolation and difficulties linked to geography (Murphy et al, 2012;Sodi & Kgopa, 2016), the lack or shortage of means of transport to access the different professional rehabilitation services from rural areas, or the remarkable lack of support services which ensure adequate care of children with disabilities and their families (Bristow et al, 2018).…”

Conquering the great divide: Rural mothers of children with chronic health conditions accessing specialist medical care for their children

“…In Australia, in 2015, 88% of primary carers for children identified as being female and aged between 25 and 44 years (Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS, 2015). Mothers that provide care and support to their children with a CHC endure additional strains on their everyday lives (Bristow et al, 2018).…”

“…Previous studies have explored families' experiences of caring for children who have a CHC (Bessette Gorlin et al, 2016;Barlow and Ellard, 2006;Cousino and Hazen, 2013;Bristow et al, 2018;Nygård and Clancy, 2018) but few studies have focused on rural mother's experiences (Farmer et al, 2005;Sodi and Kgopa, 2016;Lauver, 2010). Understanding mothers' experiences may assist health care providers to become more aware of the impact rurality has on accessing the services required to provide optimal care for children with a CHC.…”