The National Rural Bioethics Initiative was established to create a formal mechanism for sustained bioethics-related research and program development in rural communities and rural healthcare settings. To meet that goal, past and current studies have been designed to:

• Assess and document the needs for bioethics services

• Identify emerging ethics-related issues

• Coordinate bioethics expertise

• Disseminate field-tested materials and resources

This initiative uses multiple methodologies to explore how healthcare providers and residents in rural communities identify, discuss, and resolve ethics-related issues that complicate healthcare. This applied research is critical in order to meet the needs of rural residents and to establish a foundation for future ethics-related studies in rural areas.

Project activities are designed to benefit: 1) healthcare personnel; 2) recipients of healthcare services; 3) formal service networks; 4) the general public.

This website provides information, resources and research updates generated through various studies in the following areas:

• Patient Safety in Rural Healthcare Settings. This 4 year study, funded by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) was created to examine the relationship among working conditions in rural hospitals, access to ethics-related resources, and development of best practices for improving patient safety.

• Bioethics in Rural Healthcare Settings.  These studies were created to examine the ethical issues that develop in rural healthcare settings and design resources that respond to them.  Studies were funded through grants from The Rockefeller Brothers Fund/Charles E. Culpeper Foundation and the Greenwall Foundation.

• Ethics and Environmental Health. This 5 year initiative, funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) was created to increase community knowledge of the inter-play between gene-environment interactions associated with asbestos related disease. Grant activities will be primarily conducted in the community of Libby, MT but resources will be widely disseminated.