[lannisz]

I have been called about two camp nursing positions for this summer. One is Camp Farnsworth in Vermont. The other is for Hidden Falls and/or Skylark Ranch in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. I have never done camp nursing, and I'm nervous after reading some of your posts about bad experiences. These are both girl scout camps and they look great from their websites and I was told I could bring my 15 year old daughter with me. The one in California makes me a little nervous because it sounds like everyone sleeps in tents. I would like to have my own cabin quarters. Have any of you had experience with either of these camps? (as a camper/parent or a nurse) What questions should I ask? Should I be nervous that they are still trying to fill these positions and the camps have already started? The camp in Vermont says it will pay for my license for that state. Any advice?

[lannisz]

Is everyone at camp already?

[Wendy79]

Skylark Ranch and Hidden Falls are near me, though I worked at camp in an adjoining council. Almost all Girl Scout camps have their campers in tents (usually platform-based) or some type of very primitive cabin. I feel sure the health center will be a real building, though, with electricity etc. I've heard only good things about these camps, and the setting is definitely gorgeous. Also, some young friends went through the teen counselor-in-training program at Skylark recently and loved every minute of it--speaks well for your daughter's opportunities. I did meet one nurse at a local hospital who volunteered as a nurse at Hidden Falls, returning for a week during her vacation for years. Again, speaks well!

Be sure to ask about your living facilities, your days off, and how your hours will work. Know that you are likely to be the ONLY nurse there and your hours will be erratic; you'll have to be flexible.

It's very difficult to find nurses to work at camps, and common for camps to continue looking this late in the season. I wouldn't worry about that at all.

Feel free to send me a private message if you have more questions; I worked the last three years at GS camp, and I think likely a job at Skylark or Hidden Falls would be very similar to mine.

Oh, re: the license: it sounds to me (correct me if I'm wrong, someone who actually knows!) like it could take so long to get the license approved, you'd be halfway through the summer at least by the time you could start working.

[lannisz]

Thanks for all your answers Wendy - I really appreciate your opinion and hearing about your experience at these camps. I did some investigating in regards to licensing and it looks like both Vermont and California have options for temporary licenses for a 90 time period. (If I'd been thinking ahead...I would have already applied for an endorsement on my license from CA....I'm currently licensed in Oregon, but I live only 25 miles from the CA border!) The really exciting thing for me is that I grew up in California and when I was a teen I went to camp in the redwoods/Santa Cruz mountains. Happy memories....I will call the camp director back today.

[INGBRECKS]

I am a Farnsworth staff member!! i worked two summers there as a counsellor in 2003 and 2004. i had a great time and recommend working there to you. The camp is set in woodland in Vermont, nearest village is Thetford, town is Hannover in NH just over the river. the Health building is sturdy wooden structure, a cabin, with accomodation for the nurse within it. it has electricity, a sink, flushing toilet....

the camp has a mixture of platform tenting accomodation and cabins for girls and counsellors. a large dining hall with a laundry room. in here is a lockable cupboard where the kids medicines are kept, so that they can be dispensed at mealtimes.

if you have any questions, i suggest that you call the camp and look at their website, it has pictures of the camp and details of their programmes. if you have never lived a summer at a camp like this, it will be a lovely experience.
the staff in charge, camp director and office staff are lovely people. call them up and tell them "Storm" has been telling you to badger them with questions and encouraging you to go there for your summer.
i recommend that you take warm clothing for the evenings, eg sweaters, fleece, good rain jacket and good shoes. lots of the staff wear Teva type flip flops / thongs and trainers. a good torch is a must and you'll just be amazed by the stars.
your daughter will love it too!!

absolutely go there, it's a great place to spend the summer

[medanthroNP]

Hi,

I have spent four years as a camp nurse, two years at each of two camps before I accepted the position at Skylark. It is a great camp, with wonderful gilrs but the nursing experience was different from previous years. There is an excpetional amount of heavy lifting and I was greeted with 20 sleeping bags, five 32 gallon bags of clothes, to wash before being asked to use a professional size mop on the Health Center. I could have done this in my youth, but I had difficulties withthe unusal amout of laundry and cleaning.

The nurse gets to sleep in a building with heat, but the campers and counselors are in tents and you do need to deal with cold campers. I would have up to sixs campers come to visit me in the middle of the night, complaining of the cold. I just gave them warm tea and when I could find one, a thermos full of warm tea.

I hope that this helps.

[CareBearnurse]

Lannisz,

Also, ask how many campers there are for one nurse, and how staff medications are dealt with. Usually staff meds are also locked up in the health center and camps have different ways of handling how staff get their meds. Some have them adiministered by the nurse, others, they just come in and get them at certain times. Ask what your responsibiliy is for these.

CareBearnurse
First year as a camp nurse at GS Camp Oconeechee in NC. It's been frustrating at times but fun.

[medanthroNP]

[quote=CareBearnurse;2322765]Lannisz,

Also, ask how many campers there are for one nurse, and how staff medications are dealt with. Usually staff meds are also locked up in the health center and camps have different ways of handling how staff get their meds. Some have them adiministered by the nurse, others, they just come in and get them at certain times. Ask what your responsibiliy is for these.


Hi,

After keeping the staff meds locked in the health center for four years of summer camps, I didn't even think to ask if I was responsible to record every time a staff member took a one-a-day vitamin. This was a huge mistake and I was written up for recording only medications or vitamins taken for an illness event (i.e. Vitamin C for a cold). The Girls Scout Camps not only want you to record each and every vitamin, the medications must be recorded in only in the "medication log" and never into the "incident log" (i.e. again, recording that a staff member was in for a cold and took XYZ cold medications from a private collection of medications so that I could record the dose, time and rationale for taking a medication instead of merely checking a box off to note that a medication was taken was NOT alirght with the director.)

MedanthroNP

[Wendy79]

That would be really annoying, especially since you weren't told about it in the beginning! It isn't necessarily a Girl Scout thing, though; there's nothing about it in our national policies or procedures. Neither is it required by the American Camp Association. If the director told you so, she is wrong. It may be required by their local council, but in any case, it seems odd to me.