Summer Camp Opens World of Nursing to Potential Students

“The whole point of this camp is to recruit young people to the profession of nursing and see if that is what they want to invest their time, money and energy,” said Kelda McMullen-Fix, an assistant professor of nurs­ing at the Scott & White School of Nursing at UMHB, who created the camp with Dr. Tracy Booth, associate dean and professor. “The camp’s purpose is to help so­lidify their decision to enter into nursing school.”

During the week, students like Reese Hodge, a high school senior from Dallas, learned that nursing school isn’t for the faint of heart. Ask any nursing student, and they will agree nursing school is notoriously difficult, with an intense curriculum, fast-paced itineraries, exten­sive study and mastery of skills all required. And then comes thorough prepping for the NCLEX after gradua­tion.

“This camp has definitely been eye-opening,” Reece said. “I didn’t know everything a nurse does in their day-to-day work. I do find the value in nurses a lot more now.”

At the beginning of the week, she and the other students were each given a new stethoscope, which they put to good use in the simulation hospital.

“Everything is just so realistic,” Reese said of the Isabelle Rutherford Meyer Nursing Education Center, which features a simulation hospital with high fidelity “pa­tient” simulators, a nurses’ station, four standard hospital rooms, an ER/trauma room, a labor and delivery room, a critical care room and a home health room.

Kate Sparks, a high school senior from Waco, is also considering the nursing field but wanted to get a taste of what college life at UMHB might be like.

“We were really kind of thrown into the college experi­ence—eating in the dining hall, staying in the dorms and more,” she said. “It was an awesome preview for college life and really put into perspective what we’re going to experience.”

Like Riley, Kate was drawn to the medical field when she was young and spent time in the hospital. This past year in high school, as she took several medical classes and got her medical assistant license, she fell in love with the idea of nursing. The camp solidified her decision further.

McMullen-Fix said it is not uncommon for at least two or three students to declare pre-nursing as their major and then change their mind after their first semester. Either students find out they don’t like all the science involved or find themselves interested in other majors when they learn about them. Attending the camp gives students an up-close and realistic look at what is involved in nursing school and emphasizes the fact it will be a lot of work.

Students all agreed the camp gave them the knowledge they needed to guide them into talking more with their families and making an educated decision about whether they want to pursue nursing or not.

“That’s completely the point of the camp,” Mc­Mullen-Fix said. “Now they can go home with more knowledge and make informed decisions about their future career.”

And even if that decision happens to not be in nursing, she said the students also got a look into oth­er health professions, including occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, and physician assistant majors at UMHB.