Salina nursing students see Kansas rural health care up close

Nursing students at the University of Kansas Medical Center learn all about a wide variety of employment opportunities as they progress through their program. Recently, nursing students on KU School of Nursing’s Salina campus had the opportunity to see the role of nursing in critical access hospitals up close.

Nearly 40 nursing students, faculty and staff from KU School of Nursing went on the trip. A chartered bus transported them from the KU Salina campus to Scott County Hospital in Scott City and to Citizens Health in Colby. Both facilities are critical access hospitals in the western part of the state.

Critical access hospitals are designated as such by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that oversees those programs. There are 82 critical access hospitals in Kansas. For this designation, federal requirements stipulate that they must have 25 or fewer beds and be at least 35 miles apart. The average patient stay must be 96 hours or less.

Of the 32 students on the trip, only two had ever seen a critical access hospital. At each location, there were presentations and tours designed to help students understand the crucial role these facilities play in the lives of Kansans.

“Even though we look small, there’s a lot going on here. You get to see a little bit of everything, and it provides a great foundation of nursing preparation,” said Ashley Lambert, chief nursing officer at Citizens Health.

Another goal of the trip was to assist students who may be considering a future position working in a critical access hospital. Speakers explained the unique opportunities for learning at these smaller facilities.

“You get to see a lot in a critical access hospital. In a larger hospital, you learn a specialty and then that’s all you do. Here, nurses do it all and work as a team,” said Brianna Fief, a nurse at Scott County Hospital.

Lisa Vance, a nurse at Scott County, agreed. “Here we’re a one-man show. So, as a nurse, you have to know a little bit of everything,” she said. “While we don’t have a nurse residency program here, we do have one-on-one training and mentoring to get our new nurses started.”

Karen Weis, Ph.D., FAAN, campus dean of KU School of Nursing-Salina, thought the experience would be valuable for students, many of whom may not have thought about the benefits of smaller facilities, which often triage to larger ones as well as provide valuable services to their communities. “These hospitals are prepared for everything,” Weis said.

Several of the nursing students agreed, noting the cooperative environment and the ability to learn a lot in a short time.

“I was impressed with the amount of training available to nurses within these critical access hospitals,” said Sophia Beason, a student from Overland Park, Kansas.

“I enjoyed seeing how much the nurses can do in a critical access hospital,” added Brenna Felzien, a student from Assaria, Kansas. “I was impressed that the nurses were clearly happy,”

The trip was made possible with funds from Weis’s award, the Christine A. Hartley Rural Health Nursing Endowed Professorship.

“This rural bus tour experience is valuable to KU nursing students and their understanding of what it's like to practice as a nurse in a rural setting,” said KU School of Nursing Dean Jean Giddens, Ph.D., FAAN. “Any time we can ‘show’ our students, it is far more meaningful than simply telling them about it. We're excited that they can ‘see’ themselves in rural Kansas nursing.”