Rural nursing offers great career opportunities for RNs. A rural nurse often works with greater autonomy and must be able to tackle a broad range of clinical challenges, from acute injuries to chronic disease management. Becoming a rural health nurse requires earning a BSN and obtaining licensure.
Imagine having to drive an hour or more to receive an annual health screening or being involved in a car accident and having to wait 30 minutes or longer before getting serious injuries treated. There are 61 million Americans living in rural areas, yet many of their communities lack healthcare resources found in urban areas.
Choosing a career in rural nursing could be especially rewarding because you would be helping to address this care gap.
What Is It Like Being a Nurse in Rural Areas?
Before examining what it’s like being a rural health nurse, consider what patients in rural areas experience. Rural areas are often healthcare deserts characterized by inadequate access to healthcare services, such as primary care providers, trauma centers, hospital beds, and pharmacies. One survey found that about 80% of all counties in the U.S. are located in healthcare deserts. This means patients typically must travel for care.
As a rural nurse, you could provide the essential care that so many Americans need yet lack access to.
While urban nurses often have the luxury of choosing narrow specialties (e.g., dialysis nursing), nurses in rural areas often need to be generalists. In other words, no matter what their specialty officially is, they must handle a wide range of health issues and often work with all patient populations.
Rural RNs tend to practice with greater autonomy and with limited resources, which means resourcefulness is a helpful trait. In many cases, there is also a greater focus on nursing advocacy. Nurses may sometimes find themselves serving as de facto social workers, helping their low-income patients access community services and troubleshoot obstacles to care, like a lack of transportation.
Learn all about the typical roles of a registered nurse.
What Does a Rural Health Nurse Do?
While the role differs somewhat from urban health nursing, a rural nurse typically handles many of the same tasks as other RNs. These can include:
- Patient assessments
- Diagnostic test ordering and interpretation
- Care plan development
- Patient monitoring and follow-up
- Patient and family caregiver education
- Medication administration
- Wound care
Rural RNs need to be prepared to handle anything, from routine respiratory infections to injuries caused by farm equipment accidents to chronic disease management.
Why Choose a Career in Rural Nursing?
Being a rural RN has its challenges, so why consider pursuing this career? One of the top reasons is that rural RNs are urgently needed in underserved areas. Every person should have access to quality care, yet millions don’t. Serving as a rural health nurse might provide you with a sense of accomplishment.
Plus, rural nursing is a critically important aspect of population health.
The Importance of Rural Health Nurses
Rural RNs can feel a sense of pride knowing they are truly making a difference where it’s needed most. They work with underserved populations, helping to bridge the gap to quality care and address healthcare disparities. A rural RN works to:
- Improve health outcomes
- Deliver essential primary care
- Promote preventive health
- Manage chronic diseases
- Serve vulnerable populations
- Improve health literacy and empower patients
The Benefits of Rural Nursing
Beyond the benefits to patients, rural RNs can also enjoy numerous benefits of rural nursing. These can include:
- Autonomy: Rural RNs often practice with greater autonomy.
- Financial incentives: A rural RN can generally enjoy a lower cost of living and, in some cases, financial incentives like student loan forgiveness for working in an underserved area.
- Relationships: RNs in rural areas often have the opportunity to develop strong relationships with their patients, many of whom they may work with for years.
- Nursing diversity: Because rural RNs must be generalists, they have opportunities to learn and grow as they are exposed to a diverse range of health conditions and patient populations.
- Nature: Working in rural areas can afford RNs the opportunity to live and unwind in natural settings.
Preparing for a Career as a Rural Nurse
If you’ve decided that a nursing career in a rural area could be the right fit, consider the career pathway.
Earn Your BSN
The first step toward becoming a nurse in any setting is earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). If you have few to no college credits, you will need to apply to a traditional four-year BSN program. If you have a completed non-nursing bachelor’s or a minimum number of transfer credits, you might be eligible for the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) track at Concordia University Texas.
With our ABSN track, you could graduate in as few as 16 months, following the successful completion of any prerequisite courses. You’ll enjoy a hybrid approach to learning, including:
- Online coursework that teaches nursing concepts
- Hands-on, in-person nursing skills and simulation labs
- Clinical rotations in actual healthcare facilities, during which you’ll provide patient care
What is nursing school like? Learn what you can expect and prepare for success!
Obtain Your Nursing License
After graduating with your BSN, the next step is taking the NCLEX-RN® exam. This rigorous licensure exam tests not only your nursing knowledge but also your ability to develop appropriate nursing responses to complex patient care scenarios.
You’ll answer questions to which multiple answers may technically be correct, but you’ll need to find the most correct answer given the scenario. It’s ideal to begin preparing for the NCLEX while you’re still a nursing student.
Join a Professional Organization
You might wish to join a professional organization dedicated specifically to rural healthcare. One option is the Rural Nurse Organization (RNO). Another is the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), which is open to a range of healthcare providers, not just nurses. Any professional organization you choose to join may offer continuing learning opportunities, resources, and the chance to network with fellow rural health professionals.
Pursue Professional Certifications
While professional certifications aren’t always required, you could pursue them to enhance your career qualifications and become a more competitive job applicant. As of 2024, there is only one rural health-specific certification option for nurses: the NRHA’s Rural Health Nurse Certification Program, offered through the Center for Rural Health Leadership. This certification program offers both specialized training and professional networking opportunities.
In addition to the NRHA’s certification, you may wish to pursue other professional certifications. There are dozens upon dozens to choose from, such as certifications in:
- Acute care
- Hospice and palliative care
- Diabetes management
- Asthma education
- Wound care
- Addictions
Cultivate the Essential Skills and Traits for a Nursing Career
As you pursue a career in rural health nursing, you can actively cultivate the essential skills and characteristics that are helpful in this niche. These include:
- Resourcefulness and creativity
- Patient education
- Problem-solving and critical thinking
- Interpersonal skills and community engagement
- Teamwork, but also autonomy
- Broad clinical knowledge
Is There a Nurse Shortage in Rural Areas?
There most certainly is a shortage of nurses in rural areas. In a survey of 130 rural hospitals, almost all the respondents acknowledged they experienced nursing staffing shortages. In fact, almost half of them said they even had to turn away patients due to inadequate nursing staff.
Some of the rural areas with a particular need for nurses include:
- Eastern Kentucky
- West Central-Southwest New Hampshire
- Southern Ohio
- Northwest Nebraska
- Southern Illinois
- Northern New York
Rural areas also offer career growth opportunities. If you decide to become an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), choosing a specialty as a nurse practitioner (NP) can be a great choice. Only about 11% of physicians work in rural areas, which means that oftentimes, an NP is the only primary care provider in the area. NPs can practice with greater autonomy, making this APRN specialty a great choice for rural nurses.
Get Started Today at Concordia Texas
At Concordia Texas, you don’t need any prior healthcare experience or education to apply to the ABSN track. By leveraging your non-nursing education, it’s possible to earn a BSN in as few as 16 months upon successful completion of prerequisites. Plus, you can choose from two learning sites in Dallas and Austin. Both cities offer much for future nurses, including culture, recreation, and renowned healthcare facilities.
Regardless of whether you plan to work in an urban or rural area, you can build a strong foundation for the future with Concordia Texas. Contact our dedicated admissions counselors today to get started.