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Objective: The primary aim is to explore rural clinicians' self‐reported knowledge, skills and attitudes in the decision‐making process for requesting aeromedical retrieval of patients with suspected appendicitis. A secondary aim is to understand the supports and barriers of rural clinicians experience in this clinical scenario. Setting: Clinician interviews conducted face‐to‐face in three rural hospitals in Central Queensland. Participants: Rural doctors and nurses. Design: A five‐part qualitative content analysis. Results: The majority of 44 participants identified the strong and effective teamwork. The decision to request aeromedical retrieval was a shared, joint process and identified a supportive collegial culture which supported the asking of questions and not expecting to have all the answers. Perceived barriers were lack of receiving clinicians understanding of transfer agreements, and data connectivity. Clinician pessimism was identified for perceived patient outcomes. Discussion Effective teamwork can nurture trust and collaboration across multiple health service roles. High job satisfaction may counter the physical isolation in some rural environments. Fragmentation of care is the unintended consequence of interhospital transfer and may impact rural clinicians' perception of patients' outcomes and hinder receiving clinicians' understanding of rural service limitations. Conclusion: Future work in the area of linked electronic medical records could remove a barrier for rural clinicians and improve their reflective practice by challenging their perception of definitive patient outcomes. Increased awareness by receiving clinicians of the limitation of rural services, may minimize communication barriers and thereby, improve timely patient care transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The support and service needs of people with dementia and their carers are not always addressed in rural regions, yet family carers play an important role in supporting the person living with dementia to remain living in their own home. This study sought to identify and prioritise service and support needs of people with dementia and carers. Design: A two‐phase mixed methods study involving qualitative focus groups and a survey. Setting: A rural region in Victoria, Australia. Participants: People living with dementia, carers and health professionals. Results: Focus groups identified 12 areas of need. A follow‐up survey reached consensus on the priority areas for service improvement. These included diagnosis and information access, dementia training, community understanding and carer support. Conclusion: Living in a rural region imposes significant challenges on people with dementia and carers. We need to find ways to address gaps in service provision for carers and people with dementia in rural settings and examine their applicability in other rural regions more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To quantify the effects of race, measures of socioeconomic status and geographic residency status on pancreatic cancer survival time. Design Retrospective review. Setting A southeastern safety-net academic medical centre in the United States. Participants The study population consisted of all patients who were diagnosed, referred to or treated at the medical centre between 2009 and 2012 ( n = 245). To ensure completeness and accuracy of the data, follow-up treatment and survival information about the cases were collected from the Georgia Comprehensive Cancer Registry in 2013. Main outcome measures The odds of receiving first-course treatment (surgery, radiation or chemotherapy) and overall survival following a pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Results There were no observed differences in receipt of initial treatment; however, patients from low socioeconomic and rural areas had significant increase in risk of death compared to patients from affluent and urban areas. Conclusions Results from this single site study suggests the significance of factors other than treatment differences that contribute to geographic disparities in mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the availability of dementia-related services in Saskatchewan which are analyzed using the key attributes of primary health care including comprehensiveness, population orientation and coordinated care. Dementia-specific services such as health promotion, counseling and transportation are found to be unavailable in most communities. Limited availability of specific services for rural residents with dementia is also noted.