29 JUN 2016

Nurse Camp 2016 Challenges, Inspires



NorthBay Nurse Camp once again challenged and inspired local teens to consider careers in nursing. Now in its 12th year, the camp is almost a rite of passage for Solano County teens interested in health care.

For four days in June, 32 high school students from 12 Solano County high schools participated in the camp. And they were the lucky ones. Each year the camp draws far more applicants than the program can hold.

“We had a very energetic group this year,” said Leigh Rabold, R.N., who co-chaired the camp with Laurel Nielson, R.N. In all, 21 NorthBay Nurse Ambassadors shared their knowledge of nursing with the students.

From Day 1, the teens were immersed in a fast-paced, hands on experience. Within a few hours, they learned the ABC’s emergency care: Airway, Breathing and Circulation. They practiced suturing, learned to place IVs, pass medications, give injections (to oranges) and place eye drops in eye models.

On Day 2, they put their new skills to use during the mock trauma. Rabold, a 17-year veteran of NorthBay Medical Center’s Emergency Department, ran the trauma.
After the students participated in one simulation, she asked the teens to respond to a second code on their own.

“Is he breathing? Does he need an IV?” prompted Rabold when the future nurses hesitated.
“Does he have an airway?” Soon a beehive of activity surrounded the unfortunate simulation lab mannequin, who had lost his lower leg in an accident and soon succumbed to his injuries.
And that was just the beginning of their day. The group moved on the learn about casts and restraints, tour VacaValley Hospital, watch a life-saving helicopter land and learn how paramedics care for a patient in the field.

Events of the third day included gowning up for an operating room experience and learning about stroke and interacting with the  stroke robot.

On Day 4 the teens divided into six groups to learn all about babies. In Labor and Delivery they learned about fetal monitoring with ultrasound and, with the help of  Simulation Lab Coordinator Lacy DeQuattro, delivered a baby. Demonstrations on newborn care and a visit to the NICU concluded their Nurse Camp experience.

“Listening to the heart beat of a NICU baby brought one teen to tears,” Rabold shared. While another participant commented, “You taught me more than I needed to know about pregnancy!”

Nurse Camp was designed by nurses to give teens an up close and personal look at careers in hospital nursing. Judging by the students’ comments, the nurses more than achieved that goal.

“I had heard a lot of great things about nursing and nurse camp, but I didn’t expect as much hands on experience and to become as attached to the nurses here as I have,” remarked Nora Fey, a student at St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School in Vallejo. “I’m sad today is our last day, but now I know for sure this is the career I want. It’s dead on sure, I’m going to be a nurse!”

Alana Eaton, also a student at St. Patrick-St. Vincent, said “I love it! My mom’s a nurse and she usually tells me stories but that’s not as real as this has been. I was always interested in bones but now that I’ve seen the NICU and Labor and Delivery, I think that’s the way I want to go. It was just amazing!”

And the best part about Nurse Camp: “The best part was the nurses!”

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