Gap Medics Launching medical careers

Nursing experience in Tanzania

Tanzania is perhaps our best destination for students hoping to study nursing who are particularly interested in obstetrics, childbirth (natural and Caesarian section), paediatrics and infectious diseases. One great advantage of having our own Gap Medics house just a few minutes’ walk from the hospital is that students can be on call to observe emergency surgery and C-sections whenever they happen.

You’ll be based in a busy 365-bed Regional Hospital that offers both primary care and referral services for a large area of southern Tanzania. Roughly a third of the 60-90 babies born each week at the hospital are delivered by Caesarian section, as home births are common in this part of Africa and mothers only tend to attend hospital if there are complications. Malaria and road traffic accidents are other common causes of admissions.

We have a great team of nurses and midwives serving as Gap Medics student mentors, covering the main departments of Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Internal Medicine and General Surgery.

All our mentors, both on the medical and nursing side, take their turn in presenting our bespoke afternoon teaching sessions covering general clinical skills, malaria, TB, traditional medical practices, HIV public education and a range of other topics. The idea of these sessions is to provide a basis to help you understand and interpret what you see while shadowing doctors and nurses in the departments, and it’s also a great way to get to know your mentors better.