Recruiting, retaining, and educating advanced practice nurses is essential to meet the growing need for advanced practice nurses in rural and urban communities. Through the support of Health Resources and Services Administration funding, the urban school of nursing expanded its MSN program and implemented the graduate curriculum on its rural campus by utilizing emerging online and distance educ...

This paper focuses on rural living as a dimension of women's experiences of living through breast cancer. The findings presented emanate from a feminist narrative research project that examined the experiences of rural women from south-west Queensland who were long-term survivors of breast cancer. This project aimed to listen, report and interpret rural women's stories of resilience in survivin...

INTRODUCTION Chronic pain is prevalent, complex and most effectively treated by a multidisciplinary team, particularly if psychosocial issues are dominant. The limited access to and high costs of such services are often prohibitive for the rural patient. We describe the development and 18-month outcomes of a small multidisciplinary chronic pain management program run out of a physician's office...

BACKGROUND Patients with traumatic rhabdomyolysis (crush syndrome)(CS) secondary to community beatings commonly present to a rural emergency department that has limited access to dialysis services. We describe a retrospective study of patients admitted with a diagnosis of CS to the emergency department of a government hospital in rural KwaZulu-Natal, between November 2008 and June 2009. OBJEC...

Strongyloidiasis is caused by Strongyloides stercoralis, a parasitic nematode (worm). Initial symptoms can include abdominal pain, diarrhea, or rash. Infection is often asymptomatic in the chronic phase but can be life-threatening in immunosuppressed persons. Transmission typically occurs when larvae from stool-contaminated soil penetrate skin; intraintestinal autoinfection is also possible, so...

Dr Yong Yoon Foh Pejabat Perubatan, Hospital Daerah, Semporna. Lumber puncture was performed, and CSF sent for C/S and FEME. 1500 to 2500 units of ATS was administered intrathecally, using the same needle. Blood was sent for se calcium, glucose, electrolysis (to Tawau). Valium at 0.33 mg/kg given iv to stop the muscle spasms. Stat does only. Naso Gastric (N/G) tube was inserted for administrati...

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death in Australia. There is a clear benefit in caring for stroke patients in stroke care units. Access to these centres is limited particularly in the rural setting. Certified stroke care units in the private health care setting are also unheard of. The superiority of these units is thought to be due to better adherence to processes of care (early ut...

Controversy continues regarding the safety and efficacy of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for stroke outside major centers. We reviewed charts from 1998 to 2004 of 493 patients admitted with TIA or stroke to our small rural hospital. There was a 4% tPA treatment rate with no symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and zero mortality. IV tPA can be safe and effective in the treatment of acute st...

INTRODUCTION The burden of chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide. In Australia rural populations have a greater burden of disease. Chronic diseases are largely preventable with diet as a key risk factor. With respect to diet-related chronic disease, dietary risk may be due to poor food access, namely, poor availability and/or the high cost of healthy food. It is likely that poor food...

BACKGROUND Stroke is the second leading cause of mortality and leading cause of disability in South Africa yet published data on the economic costs of stroke is lacking particularly in rural settings. METHODS We estimate the total direct costs of stroke in 2012 from a health system perspective using a prevalence-based, bottom-up costing approach. Direct costs include diagnosis, inpatient and ...