CampNurse1

Dear Amethya, I am so sorry it took so long to reply. I have not checked this board in several months. I hope you did make it to camp this year and are having a meaningful time. For what it is worth you did exactly the right thing. The main thing about pets at camp is they should seldom or never have any contact with campers. A camper might hurt your furry friend, or the pet might cause harm such as allergies, or bite or scratches. You did well to check with the camp director and the head nurse. Great camp nurses are so rare and valuable I was known to car for pets in my own residence, which was away from the health center, just to retain a good nurse. I wish you all the best, and I would be happy to hear about your experiences this Summer. Much to my surprise, a special needs camp is in a bit of a jam and I am getting on my horse and going to camp next week for the first time in years. The adventure never ends.

It made sense to the pediatrician who ordered breathing treatments with O2 for his asthmatics.

I worked year round for a special needs camp in AL. I got $600 a week all year, a three bedroom house, utilities, PTO, health insurance, IRA, etc. I thought it was more than fair, easy during the winter and off season, work hard during the summer. I made sure our nurses had as much time off as possible, and only one night of call a week. At $600/wk, I figured they were making plenty of sacrifices to be there, so I did my best to take care of them. I never turned my radio off. So, not much money, but a great place to work. Also, many people in the local town adopted me and my wife, and showed us hospitality whenever we were in town. So, a good deal. For those of you who know me, my wife is healthy again, so I will be camping again soon. I am a project director in a big house in Atlanta now, and every AM I look at the guy in the shirt and tie in the mirror and think, "What happened to you?"

It depends on the acuity level you are expecting. If you have campers with asthma, a breathing treatment with O2 will open them right up, way better than a nebulizer. It depends on what your camp director will let you spend. The tanks are easy to get and not too expensive. It's good to have O2 if you need to do CPR (I've only had to do it once in six years). I have one camper each year with cystic fibrosis, and, for her, oxygen is totally needed. Her normal sat is about 80%! She and her blue lips scared the crud out of me at first. My vote even at a healthy kids camp would be to have some on hand. Get with your camp director and camp doctor.

I always paid my LPNs and RNs the same, since they did the same work. The pay was so low, it did not make much difference. I paid $600/week for a five day session for what amounted to an 8 - 10 hour day. After a few years, I decided the best assessment skill was establishing normal for each camper. A PEG tube, O2, and 20 meds are normal for some campers. Call the parents and ask if not sure what is normal. Check with the camp director first. Mama wants him to go to ER? Easy-peasy, call the truck. Mama says, "Oh, he carries on like that all the time." That gives you something to work with. This also keeps parents from being surprised (and angry) when they pick little Junior up at the end of session. Discuss the above at your interview. If you get bad vibes, there are plenty of other camps that will love to have you. Good luck!

Remember to keep being a nurse. A couple of summers ago, one of my nurses discovered errors in the blister packs! One thing I like about the very tedious job of pulling meds is you are checking and knowing what you are administering. One can easily get into "zombie mode" when punching blisters. A surprising number of privately owned pharmacies will blister or roll pack. The big chains will not. Some do not charge for it if you politely explain it is special needs or some other charity. Others will charge $5 - $10. Give them a couple of days to do it. The suggestion to check nursing homes is excellent. Compliance is another matter. Some camp directors are strict about compliance, others make exceptions for everyone.

I am married to a member of the management team at Piedmont Newnan. She used to tell me about the wonderful recruitment system they have. "We interview nurses on the spot!" "Our nurse recruiter is great!" At least that is what she heard at the meetings she goes to. When I was looking for a new job (med-surg RN) last fall I stopped by HR to say hello and to drop off a resume. I was told they could not accept a paper resume, only an online resume would do. I was essentially told to take a hike. So I applied online and waited a few days. I never did hear back from the recruiter, of whom I later heard is not a nurse and is based in another city. I shared my experience with my wife, who made a phone call. I was contacted later that day for an interview. I didn't get hired, so I moved on, no hard feelings. My wife was pretty embarrassed by my experience. Six months later, they are still advertising all over the web for the position. I know a couple of other nurses that work there and have read online reviews. Most nurses are reasonably satisfied working there but more than one has commented on the disconnect between management and the bedside. Good luck, and take a look at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. They pay more, and a nurse I know really likes working there. Too many HR departments have not gotten the memo about the nursing shortage. Upper management in most places loves to talk about and market their corporate culture. Great corporate culture begins with professional respect for prospective hires, from the minute they step in the door. Lack of that respect is a red flag.

The big thing you have going for you is that it is only a three day camp. I like to tell new camp nurses to remember that camp nursing is a big job, sometimes brutal! Also wonderful. Find my article, on this site, on how to choose a camp. It has a good list of questions to ask the Camp Director. Get some face time with him or her soon. Try, if they'll let you, to get to camp a day or two early to get settled and to get familiar with your health center. Hopefully, you'll be able to review the camper applications and plan your med passes and other nursing chores. Try to take a day off after camp -- you'll be tired! What will you see? Mostly you might see what you listed in your first post. Bumps, boo-boos, dehydration, allergic reactions, sprains, all the way up to cardiac arrest. There is no way to predict how busy you will be. The first day will probably be pretty busy, since you'll be getting organized. On a short camp, about the time you start to get everything figured out it will be time to go home. Don't let possible emergencies stress you. If something is not RIGHT NOW emergent, you or the Camp Director should call the parents and ask what they would like you to do. Then you're golden. For a true emergency, call 911 and get the problem rolling out of your health center. Call the parents (the CD can do this also), document, and move on. Find out in advance who goes to the ED with the camper. It shouldn't be you, since that leaves camp without a nurse. All that being said, it is pretty unlikely you will have to deal with a life or death situation. Be mentally prepared with a plan in case you do. Remember you are running a first aid station, not a hospital. Send the big stuff out. I like to tell my new nurses it is important to "get your head out of the hospital." When you are not nursing, be sure and go to activities and have fun. Wear a pirate hat while you pass meds. Read a trashy novel. Bring a headlamp to camp. You'll find it leaves both hands free. Don't forget bug spray and sunscreen. The rest is pretty much what you would pack for any weekend away. I'm sure I've forgotten something. The other nurses here will chip in. Good luck! Be sure and let us know how camp went.

I think we need some more specifics before we can help. What kind of camp is it? Healthy kids? Special needs? Are you on your own, or will there be other nurses, an NP, or a doctor? Is the staff professional or volunteer? Is there a set up for medication delivery, or will you have to create one? What kind of documentation will you have to manage. Are there pre-existing protocols, standing orders, or a handbook? As for websites, try the Association of Camp Nurses and this one. Good luck, welcome to the forum, and keep us posted!

Another "must read" for all camp nurses, especially new ones, is Big Al's article at this link: https://allnurses.com/camp-nursing/10-camp-lessons-834613.html Each one of his points could be a chapter in a book on camp nursing! Hey, Al! We could collaborate on a book. We'd sell at least 100 copies and get rich, lol.

I usually stick to the camp nursing forum, but, when I saw the subject matter, I couldn't help but chime in. I have been on insulin since 1967. I have been on a pump (Omnipod) for the last three years. Thankfully, no complications, except for a bit of numbness in my feet. I have spent my entire adult life in healthcare, with the last seven years as a nurse. Before writing this, I took a cursory look at the dietary compliance data available online. As I suspected, compliance is low, between 17 - 28% in the studies I looked at. All of the studies used questionaires as the primary tools. Human nature being what it is, I doubt that any patient is compliant 100% of the time. Most of my 47 year life as a diabetic has been spent in complete dietary non-compliance. Life happens! When I was a scrub tech, some of the cases lasted 10-12 hours. Every now and then, I would break scrub for a few minutes and have a snack if it was necessary, but mostly I just soldiered on. Keeping the compliance rate in mind, it is important to establish a relationship with our patients and to create a unique approach for each of them. This is where RDs do a great job. An interview is a good way to establish needs. What are the patient's likes and dislikes? Is our care culturally competent? What are the patient's education and socioeconomic levels? What are the patient's cooking abilities? Does the patient have an engaged family or other support system? Too much of our teaching is in one-size-fits-all written handouts. These do not serve well if the patient doesn't read well, or is depressed about the diabetes diagnosis. Another big issue is time. When I was first diagnosed at the age of ten, I spent three weeks in Children's Memorial Hospital. My mother and I went to classes every day on diet and insulin therapy. The dietician (Mrs. Stubblefield, God bless her!) taught us how to weigh food on a gram scale and how to prepare low fat, low carb meals. No sugar! Ever! Period! No butter! Oleomargarine was thought to be better for you at the time. I remember two times a week I could have a very thin slice of angel food cake or a miniscule bit of ice cream. No new diabetic is going to get three weeks in the hospital nowadays! More like three or four days, unless they are really sick. No one can learn much if they do not feel well. The RD and Diabetic Educator will not have much time at the bedside. I remember rolling a patient out to his car in his wheelchair one day when I worked med-surg. From his comments I got the feeling he had no idea what to do about his newly discovered NIDDM. I slowed way down! What could I come up with in the three minutes I had with him? I wrote down how to get in touch with our Diabetic Educator and get some outpatient teaching. "You've got to do this or you will get sick again!" I then spoke of the need to take his antidiabetic medication at the same time every day. I mentioned portion control and the nine inch plate diet. When we got to the car, his daughter said, "I thought it would take you forever to get down here!" I wished him good luck, with a sinking feeling. The original poster asked what was the best diet in an ideal world. The old answer would have been an ADA diet matched to the patient's activity level. The ADA no longer endorses that diet. That is a surprise to some nurses, and some hospitals still serve up the famous "1800 ADA." The information on the ADA website is essentially to "eat healthy." Counting carbs, an essential, is best left for another post. I would say the best ideal world diet is one that fits the patient's likes, dislikes, culture, ability, and motivation. That would be ideal.

I always started recruiting the day after New Year's. It might help to read my article "Choosing a Camp." It's somewhere here on allnurses.com. If y'all like, I will write an article on setting up your health center for the summer. If I get a couple of "yeas," I'll go ahead.

I supervise a LTC and rehab facility. I would love to have the support I had when I worked acutes. We don't have a doctor, respiratory, lab, a pharmacist, or an anesthesiologist. Our crash cart is more like an advanced first aid kit. It has oxygen, BVM, a Gomco kind of suction machine, one bag of NS, an IV start kit, some airways, and some other odds and ends. No AED. No drugs. I have my nurses move blood and O2 until the paramedics get there. About the most advanced thing I can do is do the IV start so the paramedics can push drugs if they need to. If anyone has any suggestions, I am open to them. I found it to be important to assign roles to each member of my team, both back in my med-surg days and now. If one is the charge nurse or supervisor you have to assume leadership until somebody with more letters after their name than you gets there. Assignments help your staff not have that "I don't know what to do!" panicky feeling. Assign compressions, Ambu, recording, someone should get the chart(no EMR at my place!), and whatever else you need. Get unnecessary staff back to their work areas, politely. Especially the rubberneckers. Never raise your voice, it just betrays your own anxiety and makes peoples hands shake more. When the doctor, the code team, or the paramedics get there, back your team out of the way, as appropriate, and continue your leadership. Give report, and make sure recording continues. I remember during one code in med-surg the doctor looked at the patient's nurse and shouted, "You, I need two lines started now!" That particular nurse was a good nurse, but the worst IV starter on the floor. I pointed to my best IV nurse and told her to do it. I said to the doctor, "Sir, tell me what you need, I'll make it happen." The doctor is running the code, and you may be the one managing your nurses. Most of the codes we do in LTC do not survive. We do our best with what we have, but if a 94 year old heart stops, it is not likely to recover. If you happen to have a loved one in LTC, please consider a DNR, Do Not Hospitalize, or hospice care, if appropriate. Often families put this off, and it forces me to go all out, thinking, "What a shame" while I do it.

Thanks for the link, Nutmegge! Printed and in my Health Center.

Yup, I've had nurses (ER, no disrespect!) who thought they were doctors. Having to rein in an overenthusiastic nurse, though, is kind of a happy problem. Another thing about a backboard. If you do put one on a truck, it will be the last you see of it. Same with linen or O2. Don't get me wrong. Do what ya gotta do.