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Camp teaches, inspires teens toward nursing by Cindy Abole Public Relations With summer here, students of all ages are lining up to attend summer camps around the Tri-county area. In camp locations throughout the state and country, students learn new skills and build character that inspire them to be well-rounded individuals. On June 5, MUSC began an experience of its own to help orient young teens to nursing careers through MUSC/Charleston County School District (CCSD) Summer Nursing Camp.   Oncology nurse Carrie Maxwell, 8W, explains features of a Kangaroo feeding pump to MUSC Nursing Camp students Shenequa Prioleau and Charles Rouse. The pump, which was demonstrated in the College of Nursing's Skills Lab, is used to help feed patients who are unable to take solid food by mouth. Eleven students were introduced to various nursing skills in the facility from proper hand washing techniques, tracheotomy care and starting an IV to making an occupied bed. The three-day camp is a collaboration between MUSC and the CCSD's Schools-to-Careers program to attract interested students in nursing or related medical careers. Echoing the same mission of summer camps, nursing camp provided participants with learning and discovery in a stimulating environment.   This year, 11 ninth grade students were introduced to the nursing profession through a formal program that helped participants explore nursing careers, introduce nursing skills and offer job shadowing experiences for students.   Wando High School's Chloe Urig, right, and West Ashley's Brittney Smalls, complete an  icebreaker survey June 5 for summer nursing camp. “I truly enjoy doing this,” said 8W nurse manager Yvonne Martin, R.N., Medical Oncology/BMT, a 28- year nursing veteran. “Nursing has been a wonderful career for me and a great choice for young adults to consider. I hope this experience has been helpful to inspire students towards narrowing their career choices and possibly a future in nursing.”   Each year the program gathers career counselors and nurses to coordinate plans for scheduling activities, organizing lectures and presentations and arranging other details for camp. Martin and 10W nurse manager Barbara Burke worked with a nursing camp committee that also included Medical Center Human Resources’ Susan Carullo and Nicole Mullinex. The committee collaborated with CCSD career counselors Jodi Bateman, Shelby Jackman and Erica Ciucci to help make this year’s camp a success.   “This has been a great program for students,” said Jackman, a CCSD Schools-to-Careers counselor at Fort Johnson and James Island middle schools. “This year we opened the program to freshman high school students hoping that it would give them more time academically to plan and choose the right courses and participate in activities that would lead them towards college and nursing school.”   Students from West Ashley, Wando, James Island and Academic Magnet high schools participated in activities that ranged from an active question-and-answer icebreaker session to listening to presentations by career nurses in oncology and trauma. Later, they visited the College of Nursing’s skills lab to learn various nursing skills.   The next day, students participated in assigned job-shadow activities during which they observed nurses in specific hospital areas from radiology, endoscopy, postpartum-GYN, PACU, Heart & Vascular Center and multiple patient ward areas.   Chloe Urig, 14, a Wando High School freshman, spent her second day shadowing nurses in the PACU and radiology. “It was helpful for me to see and learn about the many types of nursing jobs out there,” Urig said. “The nurses and staff were great helping me understand their work and answering questions.”      West Ashley freshman Charles Rouse observed different activities in radiology and endoscopy. Rouse was inspired to join this year’s camp and explore nursing from his grandmother, Willimena Ward, who is a nurse at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center.      Later that day, students met to discuss their experiences and learned more about educational and hospital volunteer activities. Finally, they joined in the camp’s traditional closing ceremony, which concluded with a presentation of certificates and stethoscopes, a contemporary symbol used by today’s nursing schools to help mark a professional milestone and achievement.      “The camp provides local young adults with a great exposure to nursing,” said Marilyn Schaffner, R.N., Medical Center Clinical Services administrator. “This experience is more in-depth than our shadowing program. The students learn what courses they must take to become a nurse. In the nursing skills lab, the students learn how to take a blood pressure, start IVs along with many other skills. Shadowing nurses on the units and in procedure areas exposes our nursing camp students to the art and science of nursing.”   In addition to job shadowing, skills building and presentations, participants learned, practiced and were certified in medicine’s most basic emergency skill, cardiopulmonary resuscitation.   “I want to personally thank Yvonne Martin and Barbara Burke for leading the 2006 nursing camp,” said Schaffner. “We receive rave reviews from both the students as well as the nurses who participate in the program. This is our fourth summer nursing camp and we look forward to celebrating our fifth camp next year!” MUSC nursing staff volunteers Nicole Wrazin, 8W; Carrie Maxwell, 8W; Colleen Corish, Oncology and Med/Surg Services; Joanne Ramsey,  8E; Tamela Sill, 7E; Deborah Couillard, Emergency Medicine; Cheryl Brian, University Risk Management/Occupational Safety and Health; Elaine Rudd, Medical Center Volunteer Services; Nancy Duffy, CON, and Marilyn Schaffner, Medical Center Clinical Services Administration. (Note: Special thanks to all nurse managers who supported camp activities by allowing students to shadow in their areas.) 2006 Nursing Camp participants Carley Congdon, Ashleigh Ellington, Hannah Vining, Chloe Urig, Shakeia James, Shekema James-Thomas, Shenequa Prioleau, Charles Rouse, Jasmine Al-Amin, Brittney Smalls, and Benjamin Brown     Friday, June 16, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publication at 849-1778, ext. 201.