Main description:

This volume initiates a much-needed conversation about the ethical and policy concerns facing health care providers in the rural United States. Although 21 percent of the population lives in rural areas, only 11 percent of physicians practice there. What challenges do health care workers face in remote locations? What are the differences between rural and urban health care practices? What particular ethical issues arise in treating residents of small communities? Craig M. Klugman and Pamela M. Dalinis gather philosophers, lawyers, physicians, nurses, and researchers to discuss these and other questions, offering a multidisciplinary overview of rural health care in the United States. Rural practitioners often practice within small, tight-knit communities, socializing with their patients outside the examination room. The residents are more likely to have limited finances and to lack health insurance. Physicians may have insufficient resources to treat their patients, who often have to travel great distances to see a doctor. The first part of the book analyzes the differences between rural and urban cultures and discusses the difficulties in treating patients in rural settings.
The second part features the personal narratives of rural health care providers, who share their experiences and insights. The last part introduces unique ethical challenges facing rural health care providers and proposes innovative solutions to those problems.

Contents:

List of Contributors
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Overview of Rurality and General Ethical Issues
Chapter 1. Rural-Urban Differences in End-of-Life Care: Reflections on Social Contracts
Chapter 2. The Challenges of Rural Health Care
Chapter 3. Ethics, Errors, and Where We Go from Here
Chapter 4. The Ethics of Allocating Resources toward Rural Health and Health Care
Part II: Practitioners' Voices
Chapter 5. Reflections on Fifty Years in Rural Health Care
Chapter 6. Serving the Underserved: Personal, Social, and Medical Challenges
Chapter 7. Ethical and Sociocultural Issues in Rural Mental Health Care
Part III: Specific Ethical Issues and Solutions
Chapter 8. Ethical Dimensions of the Quality of Rural Health Care
Chapter 9. Building Bioethics Networks in Rural States: Blessings and Barriers
Chapter 10. Structural Violence in the Rural Context: The Ethical implications of Welfare Reform for Rural Health
Chapter 11. Rural Geristric Bioethics: A Texas Perspective
Chapter 12. Supporting the Rural Physician: Processes and Programs
Index