advice for camp nurse interview?

Alex Egan, LPN, EMT-B · Feb 2, 2012

I have only worked for one camp, but here are some things that made my expearence better. There was a doctor on site, and she was a pediatrician. A lot of camps have a doc on call or rounding, but I found it nice to have her there when we would have some serious or off the wall stuff. Also the fact that she was actualy a doc who worked with children was a huge plus, camps offer discount tuition if a parent is willing to be the camp doctor this leads to a dermatologist or a orthapedic surg trying to treat typical camp illness which they arnt familiar with. There was a head nurse who was a returner. Having someone in charge who knew what they were doing was an enormous help. I have herd stories where three nurses show up and find a letter from last years crew giving some steps to follow, but no one really knows for sure what they are doing. I cannot imagine having my first year without these things and if I were in your shoes I would want to know about them.

kaufer01 · Feb 3, 2012

I've worked at three different camps and each one was vastly different. They all had positives and negatives. One big thing I would watch out for is camper to nurse ratio. I have been in a situation where I was the only nurse on site (although I had an EMT-B/Student nurse working with me and an EMT-B available) for over 300 campers and about 100 staff. Not exactly a safe situation.

CloudySue · Feb 4, 2012

This is what my interviewer told me after our interview, that it's not hard to actually treat the kids, do the paperwork, all the day-to-day clinical stuff. They said anyone with a license can do that, that's not what they are worried about. What they were interested in is someone who, over the course of the interview, comes off as someone who's friendly, caring, enthusiastic, has a sense fo what camp life is all about, and has social experience interacting with children. I am a Girl Scout leader and former teacher so he said I was exactly the type he was looking for.

As far as part time, maybe a close day camp will have that for you, but if you are going to a sleepaway camp, they want you to be available 24/7. Not that they'll need you to work all that time, but they need someone flexible so if another nurse gets sick, you can cover. They way they described the schedule is, you rotate shifts w two other nurses. You are on 8a-10p the first day, then 8p-10a the next day (and can sleep in the infirmary), then the next day might be your day off, then the next day you do a split shift, 7a-11a and then 6p-11p, or something like that. Pending an unforseen circumstance, I should be getting a day off after every three days. Of course every camp will be different.

This camp offered me $650/week. This doesn't sound like a lot until I factor in my two daughters' waived tuitions ($17,400 value) all meals (ZERO grocery bills all summer), No daycare to pay for (I paid $270/week last year) and other little expenses of daily living at home, like gasoline, utilities, random summer fun (like going to the movies, amusement parks, going out for ice cream), etc. I'm such a geek, I did the math! The total value here for me if I added up the money, camp tuition, and saved childcare and home living costs is worth to me over $500/DAY for a six-week assignment.

The only problem? My girls and I cannot stand the anticipation! June 25 cannot come soon enough for us!