Eight undergraduate Penn Nursing students are traveling to Botswana to put their classroom lessons to work in the world.

Students in the “Nursing in the Community” course will spend five weeks caring for patients in clinics, orphanages and schools in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The Penn undergraduates will be supervised by an American nurse and partner with student nurses at the University of Botswana to provide wellness care, blood pressure and diabetes monitoring, wound treatment, and medication management for patients with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. In total, the students will provide more than 1,000 hours of nursing care to local residents.

They are also bringing eight 50-pound bags filled with more than $20,000 in donated medical supplies, including aspirin, multivitamins, gauze pads and antibiotics. Any unused materials and supplies will be left in Botswana.

To monitor the students’ trip, visit the Penn-Botswana Nursing blog at: http://2009pennbotswananursing.blogspot.com/.

Click here for information on the Botswana-UPenn Partnership.