Rural Indigenous Experiences of Healthcare Services: A Scoping Review.
Tayla Cadigan, Lisa Kremer, Alesha Smith and 1 others
PMID 42068139WHAT IT FOUND
Rural Indigenous patients and families described long travel, costs and appointment delays causing missed care, plus racism, unexplained tests and restrictions on whānau.
Telehealth and family-centred, plain-language care were described as helpful.
Key findings
01Long travel was reported to cause missed appointments, while telehealth was used to access diabetes-related care.
02Participants reported being refused or not offered needed diabetes tests, experiencing racism, and having whānau restricted in hospital, including during end-of-life care.
03Several participants said clinicians did not explain what tests were for, what results meant, or why medications were needed.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only seven studies were included, and none came from the USA despite it being part of the review question. The studies focused only on diabetes and cancer, so experiences from other conditions or rural services are not represented. Grey literature and conference abstracts were excluded, so some local or community perspectives may be missing. Regional and remote experiences were searched under rural terminology, which may have missed relevant papers. The review reports experiences, not measured health outcomes, so it cannot show whether any service change improves care.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that telehealth, cultural safety training or patient navigators improve outcomes. The review maps experiences from seven studies and does not test whether any service change works.