Minimal Changes and Missed Opportunities: A Decade Look at Nurse Practitioners in the Lower Mississippi River Delta States

The U.S. southern region has one of most socioeconomically deprived and poorest health care outcomes in the county. The aims of this study were to determine changes of nurse practitioners (NPs) and their practice in lower Mississippi River Delta over the past decade and to examine differences of NPs' employment in health professional storage areas (HPSAs) and rural areas. A nonexperimental quantitative survey technique was used in the years 2000 and 2010. Other data sources included Health Resources and Services Administration that identified HPSA and the U.S. Census Bureau used to distinguish urban and rural areas. NPs are younger, and more are graduates of master's and doctorate degrees, but they are not reflective of the race they serve. Approximately, 25% of NPs worked in HPSA, and 50% worked in the rural area both in 2000 and in 2010. This proportion has remained blatantly steady during the past decade. Employment in rural health centers and family practice as a specialty declined; however, self-employment was on the rise. Nursing schools and health care institutions should be collaborating to develop plans and implementation strategies to recruit and retain NPs in the Mississippi River Delta rural and HPSAs.