Summer between 1st & 2nd year Nursing school

[CrazyNurseGrrl]

Hi everyone,

I am very interested in camp nursing. I thought I read somewhere that some camps will allow you to come in and work if you're about to start your second year of nursing school. I have noticed a few places that want a nurse aide in addition to a nurse - but nothing like what I described. I've found a few are looking for LPNs or EMTs or RNs - just someone with general knowledge, so maybe THEY would accept someone with a year under their belt?

Anyway, I was just curious.

Also, could someone please give me an example of a "typical day"?

And do you work 10 days straight, 8am to lights off, then have a few days off, or how does a typical schedule run?

Thank you very much for your help!

[BonnieSc]

Yes, there are many camps that would be interesting in hiring you. Camp nurses are hard to find.

The typical day varies a lot from camp to camp, but I can tell you that it's really unlikely you'd be working from 8 AM until lights out... you'll be working during the night, too. But there's generally a lot of downtime during the day.

One of the biggest jobs is passing routine meds, which will happen at least four times a day (after every meal and before bedtime; sometimes other times are needed). Many camp nurses have "sick call" at the same time as med times, which is what I find works best. I see lots of non-urgent cases at this time (rebandage, sore throat, etc). Then I'm sort of on-call for anything else that happens during the day or night. Nurses have to keep the health center clean, keep records, and sometimes do cabin or grounds inspections.

It's a fairly easy job if the healthcare system at the camp is good when you come in. It can be an extremely hard job if the healthcare plan is inadequate or unsafe.

Working at camp during nursing school is GREAT experience.