Kids Explore Nursing in Summer Camp

Remember summer camp? A day of homesickness, followed by a week or two of new friends, craft classes, sports and the requisite tears when everyone parted and headed home? Good times, for sure. They weren’t so common when I was a kid but, now, specialty camps, including several for wannabe nurses, have popped up around the country.

What a great idea to get a taste of the nursing profession early on, plan a high school curriculum heavy in the sciences and be prepared to step right into college with an eye on the prize, so to speak. Or, not. Some say these camps are a part of the answer to the nursing shortage. I don’t think so. The shortage has very little, if anything, to do with a lack of interest in the profession. The long wait lists to get into most programs attest to that.

I do see value in these camps, nonetheless, because they can be a definitive experience, positive or negative, for some attendees. If it is positive, the student’s career choice is validated and he/she can stay the course. More important, in my opinion, is the negative outcome. The one that leads the student to say, “Absolutely not! I’ve got to find a career that suits me better.”

Vying for a spot in a nursing program is so competitive these days, acceptance so coveted, nurses in such short supply, that the profession cannot afford to lose a nurse because of a student’s realization, several months into the program, that nursing is not a good fit. Figuring that out beforehand is an advantage for both the program and the student.

If you know a young person (ages of campers, depending upon the camp, range from 11 to early high school) who is interested in a nursing career, drop a hint that these programs exist and are worth investigating.