Scrubs Camp encourages local students to try medical careers
By Annette Tait
Help! Do you know CPR? Start compressions, and help him breathe!
Students’ confused expressions quickly turned all business as they stepped into the North Dakota Simulation in Motion (ND-SIM) “accident scene,” dropping to their knees to aid the “victim’s” frantic “spouse” in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and providing rescue breaths using a device called a bag-valve mask.
Eighth grade students from Center-Stanton, Beulah, Hazen, and Killdeer schools knew they would be getting hands-on experience during the Scrubs Camp held at Hazen High School, but they weren’t prepared to walk in on the victim of a farming accident who was unresponsive and had multiple injuries, including a right leg that had been amputated just below the knee.
They rallied quickly, helping to put the amputated limb in plastic and cooling – but not freezing – it with ice, and trading off giving compressions and breathing for the victim.
The ND-SIM truck, along with CPR and airway adjuncts – devices to help keep an unresponsive patient’s airway open, made up the emergency medical services station, one of eight students visited during the full-day program, designed by the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota to introduce students to health care careers. Also on the agenda were nursing services, rehabilitation services, respiratory services, behavior health, nutrition services, medical providers, and diagnostic services.
“We started Scrubs Camps because we knew there was a need for health career awareness programs,” said Lynette Dickson, UND Center for Rural Health. “There were a few things in schools, but we wanted to focus on rural health care, getting kids interested in and raising awareness about it.”
The UND Center for Rural Health works with local communities through competitive grant process, which requires local medical providers to submit applications that detail their plans for Scrubs Camp.
