Camp Nursing General Question

[Cubs1]

I was thinking back to when I attended a summer outdoor/wilderness camp as a kid. The camp nurse performed a full physical assessment on all of the campers.Looking back this seems a little excessive for a week long camp. I would understand the full assessment if this were a camp for kids with health conditions/special needs however it was not. Is this a normal practice in camp nursing? Note- I crossposted this on the Camp Nursing thread but didn't get a response.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

When I went to camp the camp did this. Now that I volunteer at the camp some twenty years later as a nurse, they no longer do. The rationale for doing it was to screen for injuries to prevent camp from being liable for preexisting conditions, and to prevent infectious conditions from being brought in- including lice, plantar warts, and colds and flus. Of course, it was also to insure safety for the campers to participate and become familiar with any special needs the camper had.

Now, we use screening questionnaires for the same purpose.