CHICAGO, April 14, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Resurrection University students will travel to Tegucigalpa, Honduras to provide medical care as part of a Service Learning opportunity. The trip will allow nursing students the experience of practicing their medical skills and the opportunity to develop an expanded cultural sensitivity through treating patients in a developing country.

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The group of 27 students, faculty, alumni and friends, will travel to Honduras April 25, 2015 and will return on May, 2, 2015. While there, the students and faculty will provide medical care to an estimated 2,500 patients in medical brigades, and will deliver supplies to patients at Hospital Escuela in the city.

“Service Learning is an opportunity for our nursing students to develop professionally in their careers by expanding on the knowledge they learn in the classroom and clinical setting. But more importantly, it’s a way for them to expand on their abilities to communicate across cultures through serving those in need,” said Assistant Professor Nancy Reese, DNP, RN, CNE, who will be leading the team to Honduras. “This is a way for our university to positively impact a community through serving others with their abilities and their compassionate care. It is a transformational experience they will carry with them after they graduate, and into the future of healthcare.”

As a Catholic faith-based University, Resurrection University teaches students the skills needed to be healthcare professionals who also to treat patients holistically. This includes teaching the values inherent to volunteerism and giving back to the community. According to Dr. Reese, students benefit from service learning in many ways including establishing a sense of personal satisfaction, professional growth, developing higher levels of critical thinking skills.  In addition the students have preparation for healthcare practice in a dynamic and diverse health care system with increased awareness of patients, families, communities and populations.

In preparation for the trip, students take a course that prepares them to provide nursing assessment and health promotion within the context of a community and the needs of the people within it. This course establishes the groundwork for establishing diagnoses and demonstrating practices for health promotion and disease prevention. They will apply these skills to practice through providing health education, assessments and providing medicine.  They also assist Honduran dentists with procedures, assist with eye exams and fitting of glasses, and work with children in the community. The whole team does fundraising for their trip which includes monetary funds and medical supplies needed for the community they will serve.

Resurrection University is home to a College of Nursing that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Nursing (BSN, MSN, DNP) and a College of Allied Health that offers Health Informatics and Information Management (BSHIIM) and Radiography (BSIT).  An upper division school, Resurrection University is for students who have completed general education requirements (usually two years or 61 credit hours at other institutions) prior to acceptance at ResU.  Information about prerequisites can be found on the University’s website at www.resu.edu. 

About Presence Health
Presence Health is the largest Catholic health system based in Illinois, created in November 2011 through the merger of Provena Health and Resurrection Health Care. With more than 150 sites of care, including 12 hospitals, Presence Health has 22,000 employees, 4,000 medical professionals and a revenue base of nearly $3 billion.