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OBJECTIVE: Rural public libraries have been proposed as ideal locations from which individuals can access a telemedicine visit, but limited adoption of this practice suggests significant barriers remain. The purpose of this study was to determine rural public librarians' perspectives on the benefits and barriers to offering patrons the ability to use their public library for a telemedicine video visit, and to suggest strategies for moving this practice forward. DESIGN: Qualitative content analysis. SAMPLE: Fifteen rural US librarians and library directors. MEASUREMENTS: Individual interviews were conducted to determine perspectives on the benefits of and barriers to implementing telemedicine in public libraries. RESULTS: We identified four themes from the data: rural public libraries increase healthcare access in a trustworthy location, librarians are supportive of telemedicine, but have concerns, limited resources drive barriers to telemedicine implementation in rural libraries, and small rural libraries continued in-person service during the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSION: Rural public libraries can be an important part of achieving equitable access to care, particularly with regard to chronic disease management in rural populations. Rural public health nurses can be instrumental in promoting collaborations between local libraries and regional health systems that may help libraries overcome financial barriers to this practice.

Objective Ongoing environmental changes increasingly require public health nurses to understand how environmental factors impact the health of populations. One approach to researching these impacts is incorporating environmental research methods to determine associations between harmful exposures and health. We use the Salton Sea in Southern California as a demonstration of how environmental exposure can be examined using air parcel trajectory analysis. Design We demonstrate a methodology for public health nurses to better understand and apply data from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory meteorological model to estimate the effect of airborne particulate matter from a single source. Measurements We explain a method for tracking air parcel trajectories to populations: selection of meterological data to identify air parcels, geographic identification of population centers, generation of trajectories, classification of trajectory dispersions, adjusting for atmospheric stability, and merging environmental variables with health data. Conclusions Climate change-related environmental events are expected to become more commonplace and disproportionately affect those populations impacted by health disparities. Public health nurses can identify communities at risk so that public health nursing researchers can use these techniques in collaboration with environmental science to robustly examine health effects of proximal air pollution sources for communities at risk.

Researchers interested in measuring neighborhood-level effects should understand how "neighborhood" is defined within nursing sciences and other sciences, and the inherent strengths and weaknesses of current research methodologies. This concept analysis provides clarity around the concept of neighborhood within the context of health, analyzes the current state of development of the neighborhood concept, and proposes areas for future nursing research. Using the Rodger's Method of analysis, the concept of neighborhood within nursing and public health research is described based on existing literature. The concept's attributes, related concepts, antecedents, and consequences are given from the literature. Comparisons of the use of neighborhood are made between nursing, public health, sociology, and other sciences. The evolution of the concept of neighborhood throughout history is described, and important implications for future research are discussed.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of two neighborhood walkability (the extent to which the built environment is pedestrian friendly) metrics on health outcomes of women living in low-income urban neighborhoods, both before and after accounting for individual and neighborhood factors. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: A cross-sectional, retrospective design was used. The sample of 1800 low-income women was drawn from Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study (a study of low-income women from three U.S. cities). MEASURES: Using multilevel modeling and geographic information systems, the study sought to determine the effect of distance to public transportation and residential density on health status, mental health symptoms, and health-related limitations. RESULTS: No significant relationship was found between the two walkability metrics and health outcomes. Instead, neighborhood problems that affect crime and safety impacted health status and mental health symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: As cities make changes to the built environment with the hope of affecting residents' health outcomes, public health nurses need to be aware that changing walkability characteristics in a neighborhood may not affect the health of residents of high crime, low-income neighborhoods. Without first addressing neighborhood crime, efforts to improve walkability in low-income neighborhoods may fail. Language: en