For the last 5 years, NorthBay Healthcare has hosted teens in a summer camp at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield and VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville. Designed to introduce the teens to nursing as a profession, the week-long program allowed them to see nursing across the acute care continuum.

Happy Campers

This year a record 50 students from 14 high schools across Solano County applied to attend the award-winning program, which ultimately involved 30 participants (23 young women and seven young men). The teens, ranging in ages 15-18, experienced the nursing profession up close and personal.

For 4 days, they rotated through several hospital departments, gaining hands-on experience from training exercises and hearing from nurses what it's like to work in a hospital setting.

"We wanted to share our passion for nursing, and show the teens all of the different aspects of nursing," said Maureen Allain, RN, who co-founded the program with Mary Hempen, RN, CCRN, in 2004. Both women are intensive care nurses at NorthBay Medical Center.

NorthBay's Nurse Camp was designed by nurses to give students an idea of the variety of career paths available to nurses. The students visited the emergency department, labor and delivery, ICU, the cardiac catheterization lab and surgery. In each department, the nurses shared the details of their jobs and presented activities that gave a realistic feel to the experience. Students learned about wound care, blood pressure and the importance of hand washing to avoid spreading germs.

On-the-Job Training

The hands-on experience is what excited the students most.

"I thought this would be 4 days of classroom lectures," one teen said. "But instead, I've tested blood sugar, learned how to give an injection, put a cast on an arm and even handled a placenta!"

One of the most popular departments was surgery, where students donned sterile operating room garb and practiced laparoscopic surgery on a melon and used cauterizing tools on meat. Several microscopes were set up with displays including one that let students examine their own hands. One group of students watched a heart surgery (via TV monitor) taking place in NorthBay Medical Center's new cardiovascular OR. In the ED, nurses staged a dramatic "trauma," complete with sobbing mother, to let the students experience the fast action needed to stabilize an injured patient.

A REACH medical helicopter made a special landing at VacaValley Hospital to give the students an inside look at medical transport and speak with a flight nurse about her career.

"I've always wanted to be a nurse but I didn't know there were so many kinds of nurses," another student said. "This has definitely broadened my horizons."

More than 20 NorthBay nurses and a number of other medical professionals and staff members prepared months in advance to give the students a meaningful experience.

NorthBay Healthcare has been approached by a number of other hospitals about this successful program.

To help any hospital looking to re-create the program for themselves, Donna Dabeck, MSN, RN, nurse recruiter and program coordinator has created a template. For more information, contact her at 707-454-3036.

Marilyn Ranson is public relations specialist at NorthBay Healthcare.