kaufer01

I get paid every two weeks. Although I work at a school that operates camp programs in the summer, so it's their standard pay cycle. I've worked at camps that pay at the end of a session or season, however, they've also used direct deposit, so I wasn't expecting a check. Some camps offer milage or travel reimbursement, but this is something you typically will need to negotiate before accepting the position.

I'd also recommend a wilderness first aid course rather than just a basic first aid course depending on your camps location and what level of training the counseling staff have.

We buy enough to stock all of our med kits with an auto injector and then supplement with ampules for secondary doses just in case. It's crazy expensive (we send out 20+ trips every summer plus our stock at camp) Our local pharmacy provides them close to at cost. It's not cheap, but we do what we have to to ensure the safety of our participants.

Last day of camp for me was yesterday! How has everyone's summer been? Every summer I'm amazed at how much happened and how quickly the summer flew by.

Opening Day is 3 weeks from tomorrow for us! Feeling so underprepared after being short staffed during the rest of the year with our other programs. When do all of you start?

When I worked in public health we would give mantoux as ordered by our overseeing physician to individuals that met a certain criteria (high risk). We had to take and pass a test certifying how to administer and read it prior to any administration. Our camp doesn't require our staff to have the mantoux, on the physical we ask the physician to screen for risk and if there is high risk only then do we ask for it to be completed.

We have standing orders for common issues that kids have while at camp. We then require parents to also sign off on the list indicating any medication they do not want their child to receive. Any medication (other, vitamin, supplement, etc) not on the list that parents choose to send must be in the original bottle with a current prescription or note from their physician.

We hire per diem staff per day at a rate of $150/day. Less than 4 hours is a half day greater than 4 hours is a full day.

All of our HS meds are dispensed from the health center. "Minutes" are called 10 minutes prior to lights out for our younger campers. These last 10 minutes before bed are when kids are supposed to come and get meds, brush teeth, etc. The older kids come and get their meds a little bit later because they have a later bedtime. We haven't really had an issue with parents wanting their child to get it right before their head hits the pillow. When screening forms and following up with parents we let them know when our med administration times are and the process we use for giving meds and most parents don't have an issue with it.

I have those skills, it's just a matter of finding the time to be able to implement it the way I want to. I'm moving towards a Google form as a sign in which then goes to a master sheet where I can pull out a list of all the trainings a specific person has done as well as generate a list of specific people that meet a certain criteria for trainings. I just haven't had a chance to finish it. It's also a lot of data entry since everything up to this point was tracked via paper. Our HR person also saw it and wants to incorporate all the trainings and certifications she needs to track into the database as well so they are all in one place. This of course means re-configuring all the forms and the database since the information will look slightly different... If only there were another 24 hours in my day!

The biggest change we NEED to make is unfortunately one we can't make. The location of our health center is in the lower level of the same building our dining hall is in which means we have noisy foot traffic all day long (not a very restful place for sick kiddos). I have the luxury of working with this organization year round, so we've been busy implementing a lot of changes over the winter months in preparation for our busy summer and "shoulder" seasons. (We do programs for schools in spring and fall.) We just finished a revamp of our first aid kit room with improved storage and extra counter space for packing kits - our spring/fall instructors just started and the comments so far have been awesome! We also improved the kit packing process to make it a little more streamlined and the sign out process has moved from a binder with pages falling out to a mounted white board with a line for each kit. We've also been working on improving our ability to track trainings and when staff last had them. It's our policy that staff must have specific trainings current within the past year to be able to check out a first aid kit or administer medication (out in the field/on trips). That's kept us plenty busy at this point. I like the idea of creating a policy change and sending a letter home to parents that we will be keeping any OTC meds that come through, especially things that kiddos aren't expected to take on a daily basis. We do allow parents to send OTC meds that their child will be expected to take on a daily basis (i.e. Claritin), but anything else we really encourage them not to send along.

I'm a year round RN at a semester school/camp in Maine. I've been here for a year, but I've been working at camps for several summers. I'm looking for additional nurses for the summer (June-Aug) and have a full time opening. PM me with questions!

I took over as supervising nurse of a health center in Maine, I'm currently hiring for a full time nurse. I'll be hiring for an additional 3 nurses over summer (for a total of 4 besides myself), but don't have my summer job posting up yet. It's never too late to start looking, but there are camps out there that post a little later. :) big al - feel free to reach out to me with specific questions. I work year round at a foundation that has a semester school, boys camp, wilderness trips, and has shorter encampments/trips for school groups in the spring and fall. I am a supervising nurse and use unlicensed assistants for med administration all the time. There is no way I could be there all the time for every program. Historically I've had a second RN year round and I hire additional nurses over summer, but still use unlicensed personnel for wilderness trips, overnights on our campsites away from the center of campus, and off campus day trips.

I went to camp as the Camp Nurse the summer after I graduated with my degree for the entire summer. Sessions were a week long at most and had between 60-120 kids per session. The camp was fairly healthy. I was the only "health person" at camp with the exception of a few first responder level trained folks. I just made sure I was really confident in my basic first aid and assessment skill beforehand. I also met with the physician who signed off on our standing orders and met some of the office staff so I had a few resources in my pocket before summer started. Turned out to be one of the best summers ever and was pretty pivotal in my career (I'm now the supervising nurse at a semester school/ summer camp). Figure out how you're going to prepare yourself, know your resources and your limits. I'd say go for it!

Wow! 20 growth hormone kids? We have a handful, last summer we had 4 our second session - I thought that was a lot! They trickle in with the rest of the bedtime meds. We usually (but not always) have 2 nurses on for bedtime meds just because these take so much time to set up and give.

I have a health center team of 4-5 nurses in the summer. We administer meds just before each meal and have "clinic hours" right after each meal this may last up to an hour depending on how many kids and what we are dealing with. We then give bed time meds just before lights out. For the younger kids this is around 8:30 for the older kids this is 9:30. If all the kids haven't shown up by 9pm I send our "long duty" senior staff member (senior staff member that is up and responding to needs until lights out) to track down anyone that hasn't come. We sometimes have a few kids trickle in at bedtime with injuries or illnesses. We take care of any immediate need and have them come back in the morning after breakfast for follow up. Kids that stop down to the health center for bandaids and other things that are not urgent (not actively bleeding, having breathing difficulties, or other urgent/emergency type situations) are sent back to their activities with instructions to talk to their activity leader for first aid and to return after the next meal. We are then able to pack medications for trips (we pack for a lot of trips), take care of health center needs, and spend time around camp interacting with the kids. We carry an on-call phone for calls from the field and a walkie talkie for in camp needs.

Thanks for the replies. It's a lot to think about and I've really only just started the process of trying to figure out what exactly we want/need with all of the different programs and how the database we have works and what exactly it is capable of. My supervisor (another nurse that has been with the organization for about 5 years) is really on board with the idea, but wants a system that can be rolled out all at once rather than done in pieces (I'm still trying to convince her that this isn't the best idea). There has been some discussion among the higher-ups regarding paper reduction in the health center, but really it's up to us to figure out what is going to work for us and what we need. As long as we're able to keep track of what we need to and our documentation is accurate and all that stuff, they don't seem opposed to anything. You definitely have a good point that software seems to be created for the business end of things by business minded people and is not the most intuitive or user friendly in health center world. That being said, I'd really like to find out what the system can do before giving up on it and trying to recreate my own system. With CampMinder, parents are able to upload or electronically fax in their documents directly to the software which is great because it keeps everything organized, but we still end up printing everything out in duplicates for a paper chart we keep in the health center and a paper packet that gets sent with the participant whenever they leave campus to go on a trip etc. Eventually we'd like to see smart phones (or something similar) for our wilderness trippers to use for MARs, notes, and to be able to access all the camper paperwork. Initially, what I think I'd like to see if movement towards utilizing CampMinder to house our health center files while keeping a paper copy for trips, as well as using the electronic system for documenting conversations with parents and visits to the health center, which I think is all do-able with the system we have. Because of the other programs we have running, we actually have a pretty reliable internet connection for being in the middle of nowhere and have multiple computers in the health center for nurses and health center staff to use.

I'm a relatively new nurse at a boys camp in Maine. We have both residential camp as well as wilderness trips that are out for extended periods of time. In the "off season" we are a semester school and run shorter programs for local schools (outdoor classroom). We use a different system for gathering health forms and data for all of these programs. Currently, semester school and outdoor classroom are all paperbased, we get hard copies of all the forms and create all of our own alert sheets, etc as needed. For summer, we currently use CampMinder to get all participant health forms for summer so we have them electronically, but we end up printing everything out in duplicate because of our current system. After this summer, I will be helping our health center move towards paper reduction and electronic documentation. One of the big challenges I will be facing is how to incorporate wildreness trips into the mix. Is anyone else moving towards electronic records/documentation? How have you handled trips off campus? Is anyone else using CampMinder? I haven't gotten to play around with it much so I'm not 100% sure of what it can do, but it seems to have some limitations around daily medication tracking via the system. Any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Wint & androrn - looks like we've got a small group of us in Maine. I'm working at a camp in Wiscasset. It's a boys residential camp with boys, girls, or co-ed wildreness trip opportunities.

WI_home_RN - what camp? I am from WI and worked at a camp up there.

It's a bit hard to critique a resume in a forum. I generally recommend (especially if you are just out of college) listing things on your resume in the following order: Education, Certifications (these should be listed separately from your formal educational experience), Informal Trainings (i.e. if you attended a conference, have CEUs, etc), Experience (I would recommend having a full resume of all your job experience and then creating a separate resume that is job specific), Clinical experience (this should be separate from your job experience), Service/Volunteer Experience, Skills section (general things that would otherwise be under multiple sections or are not specific to any one experience), Awards, Extra Curricular Activities. It seems like the practice of writing a professional objective statement is falling out of fashion and doesn't really seem to play a big role in your resume other than taking up space. You are applying for a specific job, they're going to assume that it is what you are looking for. You can also leave off your references. If you get an interview, have them available on a separate sheet that you can leave with them if they ask. A lot of times you'll have to fill out an online application or a supplemental application that will ask for references. Again it just takes up valuable space. Formatting is a big issue, make your resume your own. (I know you said it's hard to copy and paste from a word doc.) I use a word table to make sure all of my formatting is correct. If this isn’t something you are sure of how to do Google is a great resource for learning how to use Word. Your resume is really just marketing – why is one product better than another, why are you as a candidate more qualified. As far as content for your resume goes, a big thing you want to keep in mind is that your resume is pretty much all you have to market yourself to an employer. This is all you have to let them know that you are the right candidate for your job. Use statistics as much as you can – numbers are concrete while words provide a vague image. Everything you have done can be played to your advantage, you just have to word things in a way that is still truthful, but shows what you did in the best way possible. Long lists of skills you’ve performed or diagnosis’ you’ve cared for really don’t showcase you as the person to hire. Sorry for the novel, I just spend a lot of time updating my resume as well. It’s something you’ve got to invest time in. Keep it up to date, polished, and shiny. :)

After three summers as a seasonal camp nurse at three different camps followed by a couple of summers off, I've found a full time year round "camp home". Officially accepted the offer yesterday and am ridiculously excited! Should be starting in about a month or so!

One of the camps I've worked for did have a nursing student as one of the full time nurses in the health center, they had him do a training on medication administration so he was able to pass meds, however, he was also an EMT so he had a lot of additional medical experience and there was also a licensed RN there with him. That being said, he was expected to be able to handle things on his own if the other nurse was taking care of something else. You may want to consider taking a first responder class or something similar to gain additional skills if the camp setting is something that really interests you. I really think it depends on the type of camp and what they are looking for staff wise. Your best bet is to figure out the region or state you want to work in, researching camps in that area, taking a close look at their websites, and then contacting the camps directly.

When I moved from WI to ME (both compact states) I had to give up my Wisconsin license. You'll have 30 days to transfer your license and it should be a fairly similar process when moving back. I think that say if your moving for more than a year your supposed to change residency anyway unless it's for school or military.

Congrats on the job and welcome to public health nursing! I've been a PHN for about 2.5 years and also love it. I think it's one of those jobs you really have to want to do or your going to dread going to work every day. It's certainly not the traditional job nurses take, but in my (probably very biased) opinion it's one of the most rewarding.