Igniting A Passion

Twenty-six incoming sixth to eighth-graders had the opportunity of a lifetime June 12 through 16 when they spent the week at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital's (FMDH) inaugural Med Camp, organized and directed by camp counselor Olivia Allen, who also serves as the facility's marketing assistant. The students spent the week on-site getting a behind the scenes look at all of the various opportunities the hospital provides, ranging from surgical to nurse, to maintenance to human resources.

Each day of camp was only a half day, from 8 a.m. to noon, however the attendees were able to pack in a lot of experience and information during that short time. "The whole camp was angled at igniting a curiosity in students and an introduction to health care for middle schoolers," explained Allen. "We wanted to make a difference in the lives of others by introducing students to the medical field early so that someday they may choose to make a difference in the field of health care around the world."

In addition to taking a full tour of the facility to get a feel of the various job opportunities available, students were able to experience hands-on activities including performing blood typing on themselves to figure out what their blood type was, had the opportunity to drill and place plates on bones for part of a surgery education session. The facility also turned a storage closet into a functional training operating room with working monitors.

Each educational session was taught by a member of the facility's staff that specialized in that field and included hands-on, age-appropriate, activities for the campers. The students had the opportunity to try oxygen and try on a pregnant belly. Due to the generosity of an actual patient who came in for an ultrasound, the campers were able to see an ultrasound in real time and the process to perform one.

"They had hands-on stuff in our camp location and some of that was dealing with surgeon tools, like where it's hooked up to a computer monitor. There's a long list of things they got to it. It's just so wild, where else would you get to go do all of these things?," said Allen.

The idea of the Med Camp was dreamed of by registered nurse and director of Labor and Delivery Brandi Knierm's dream of having a Med Camp at FMDH as a way to introduce students to careers and opportunities available within their own area.

The camp is centered towards middle schoolers so they can gain an interest early on of what they might want and provides interest in a field they might not know much about. "Getting kids interested in this age and showing them what's possible to even start to dive into. Because once students are 16, there are so many possibilities for them to work. There are so many awesome jobs for them to even know about that they can enter into once they are in high school," explained Allen on why the camp was directed to this age group.

Allen admits the students learned a lot and she even gained knowledge in some new things during the educational sessions the students attended. There are plans for the Med Camp to continue in future summers for students who didn't attend this year, and conversations will be taking place on how to get kids to return year after year with different experiences.