HealthCARE Camp: Exploring opportunities

There is continuing concern about the current and future shortage of registered professional nurses. Healthcare employers nationwide report difficulty retaining nurses because of aging and attrition within the current nursing workforce. Professional nursing is among the occupations expected to experience the greatest job growth in the next decade. Despite the excellent employment opportunities for registered nurses, many factors contribute to the nursing shortage. One factor is the lack of interest among teen-age youth in science-oriented service careers. Healthcare career camps offered by schools of nursing can provide the opportunity to introduce middle school age youth to careers in health related fields and form linkages with the community and its schools. The purpose of this project was to engage ethnically diverse urban youth in grades six through eight in a week long HealthCARE Camp. This initiative was funded by a grant from Division of Nursing (DN), Bureau of Health Professions (BPHr), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) awarded to a School of Nursing and Health Sciences in a private urban university in southeastern Pennsylvania. The weeklong event was held in July 2006. In addition to formal educational sessions, including guest speakers who provided insight into their roles as health professionals, participants engaged in active learning experiences such as CPR, a mock disaster drill, and the use of SIM man in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences Nursing Learning Resource Center. Stethoscopes, which each participant kept as a memento, were provided on the first day of camp to utilize for hands on activities. Camp participants wrote journal entries following daily activities and time was set aside for sharing their reflections. The HealthCARE Camp provided an enjoyable opportunity for youth to explore healthcare careers with the intent to influence their future choices. The importance of supporting math and science courses in high school curricula was also emphasized. Campers and their families viewed the camp experience very positively and expressed the hope that the camp would become a yearly event.