November 21 is National Rural Health Day, and in recognition, I’d like to share my perspective as someone who has worked as a nurse in rural hospital settings.

Like many, I was inspired to pursue a career in healthcare following the example of a provider with a lot of influence on my life. My grandmother, Mary Lynn Wiley, was not only a caring nurse, but also a trailblazer. She earned her master’s in nursing in the 1970s, before nurse practitioners were more common, and she helped a local nursing school receive accreditation. For a time, she traveled to patients’ homes and would sometimes bring me along with her, giving me early exposure to the nursing profession and instilling a desire to make a difference in others’ lives.

After working for a few years as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) in nursing homes and behavioral health facilities, I earned my bachelor’s degree in nursing and passed my board exams to become a registered nurse (RN). I worked as a nurse at a couple of hospitals in southwestern Louisiana, first in a cardiac telemetry unit, a step-down unit where patients would recover from various cardiac treatments. Because the hospital was small and there were approximately five patients to each nurse, I was exposed to many kinds of patients and conditions.

It’s widely known that hospitals, and rural hospitals in particular, are facing staffing shortages, but it is another thing to experience the effects firsthand.

I later transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU), which helped broaden my clinical skill set. During this time, I was also part of a code team and would occasionally pick up shifts in the emergency department (ED) as needed. It’s widely known that hospitals, and rural hospitals in particular, are facing staffing shortages, but it is another thing to experience the effects firsthand. Finding nurses to staff beds was always a challenge for the organization as it was competing for talent with much bigger hospitals in the region. As a result, there wasn’t much consistency.

The organization also faced difficulty hiring physicians, particularly specialists. This presented challenges, especially in the ED, as we did not always have someone working with the right expertise needed to treat certain conditions, which would necessitate transferring patients to other facilities. While staffing shortages often correlate with budget constraints, financial challenges were also felt more broadly across the organization as we had fewer resources available than larger facilities might have.

After a few years, I transitioned to working as a clinical analyst, though I would still pick up nursing shifts to keep up with hurdles and barriers staff members were facing. In this role, my main responsibility was to look at inpatient and ED workflows and assess how we could make documentation more efficient. Other responsibilities included coordinating upgrades for the electronic health record (EHR), dealing with interoperability and other reporting requirements, translating paper order sets to the EHR, and gathering feedback from staff members on their experience with health IT.

My time working at rural hospitals has been invaluable in my role today as a product manager for Paragon®, which is designed for rural, critical access and community hospitals. Nurses, physicians and other providers are using EHR workflows every day and they know the pain points better than anyone. The goal of nursing is to treat patients in a safe manner while minimizing harm to provide a great patient experience. Bringing the perspective of nurses and other providers into health IT development is crucial to supporting that goal.

I first entered the nursing field to change people’s lives for the better. Today, I am motivated by the potential to change providers’ experiences with the EHR so they can really focus on their patients—whether they’re at a facility in the heart of a busy city or a small hospital in rural Louisiana.

If your organization’s EHR is not serving the needs of your providers, it’s time to consider an alternative. Learn how Paragon Denali, built in the Microsoft Azure cloud, can support your rural, critical access or community hospital here.

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