Nursing Patient Safety Research in Rural Health Care Settings

Adverse events occur in virtually all health care arenas, and while rural health care settings are no exception, these facilities often face unique financial burdens and personnel shortages. That may hamper patient safety efforts. Many of the interventions recommended to improve patient safety have largely been based on research conducted in urban hospitals. This chapter demonstrates the extent and type of nursing research being conducted to advance rural-specific patient safety research. The studies were conducted in various settings, with topics ranging from error reporting in hospitals to safety screening in the community. Limitations of these works are discussed, and the chapter offers guidance for a future nursing research agenda to include the need for interdisciplinary research; cross-national and international collaboration; and, at a minimum, the necessity for nurse researchers to sample rural hospitals in larger studies of patient safety.