[122] MTSU Nursing Students Unite To Aid African Colleagues

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 28, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Dr. Debra Rose Wilson, 615-898-5841

MTSU NURSING STUDENTS UNITE TO AID AFRICAN COLLEAGUES
Buttons and Bake Sale Monies to Benefit Botswana’s Nurses in Need

(MURFREESBORO) –Students in MTSU’s School of Nursing are teaming up to help their embattled colleagues half a world away—in Botswana, where nurses are often the only health care practitioners citizens ever see.
The university’s Student Nurses’ Association plans a “Bake for Botswana” event on Tuesday, Oct. 5, to raise funds to support a national campaign, “I Am Proud to Be a Nurse,” aimed at improving the image and increasing the number of Botswanan nurses and midwives and ultimately improving health care options for the South African nation.
The “I Am Proud to Be a Nurse” campaign, held in conjunction with the 2010 International Year of the Nurse, intends to purchase buttons for each of Botswana’s 7,500 nurses as a show of support for their efforts. The buttons, which also can be purchased by and for U.S. nurses, are $5 each.
The Oct. 5 bake sale will be held on the second floor of the Keathley University Center and on the KUC knoll from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; all bake-sale and button proceeds go to the Botswanan button effort.
“Many nurses work in difficult circumstances in Botswana, exposed to shortages of equipment, medicines and poor practice environments. Retaining nurses in the profession has become an even bigger challenge due to compromised working conditions, high workloads and the expanded scope of practice,” says Dr. Debra Rose Wilson, MTSU nursing professor.
Wilson met with leaders of Botswana’s nursing community this summer, including the Nurses Association of Botswana and the country’s Ministry of Health, to discuss a plan of action for the nursing shortage there.
“In the United States and Canada, there are between 10 and 15 nurses per 1,000 people, depending on the state or province,” Wilson notes. “The ratio of nurses is about 3.8 per 1,000 in Botswana. Opportunities for education, both a bachelor’s degree and a three-year diploma in nursing, are available, but recruitment is challenged because of the limited number of local options available to high-school graduates.”
Wilson observes that the image of nursing in Botswana has become somewhat tainted because of complaints of substandard care, workplace violence and other issues that most nurses in North America never face.
“The nursing leaders in Botswana recognize that the image of nursing is influenced by nurses’ professional conduct, appearance, commitment, confidentiality, knowledge and skills base and, most of all, a caring approach to patient care,” Wilson explains.

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“In North America, the high standards of education, tightly regulated practice, recognition of nursing as an esteemed profession and the greater availability of resources contribute to effective and honorable nursing practice. In Botswana, however, the compromised circumstances in which nurses often work have affected the image of nursing negatively.”
For more information, contact Wilson at 615-898-5841 or drwilson@mtsu.edu.

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Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree—the only one in Tennessee—as a model program. This fall, MTSU unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.