When I first joined the National Rural Health Association
(NRHA), it was as a curious student in a nurse practitioner doctoral program
who hoped (and still hopes) to end up serving in a rural need area. That being
said, I’ve spent my life living and working in an urban environment, I’ve spent
much of my recent nursing career in psychiatry, and despite having a Public
Health Nursing certification, I’ve not had much chance to use it. Like many
nurses in big cities, I work for a company that will reimburse some education,
as long as they can see it as being related to the job. So I’ve gone to various
classes and conferences to collect CEU’s and gotten them paid for or
reimbursed.
This conference, the Minnesota Rural Health Conference for
2012 is different. I’m going because I am curious and interested and because this
is what I want to be doing long term. I’m paying for it myself, and for a
crunched-between-work-and-school pared down budgeter like me, that’s saying
something. There are discussions on Critical Access Hospitals, on coordinating
care with other community health resources, building a community team, coordinating
rural care for groups like farmers or veterans.
To those of you who have worked in Rural Health care for any
amount of time, I suspect I barely touch the surface of what could be
important. But for me, new to and excited about this type of work, it’s a
doorway and a chance to meet experts and learn what questions have been asked
and who is working on the answers.
I hope to see you there!
Diane