News

County's seventh grade students scrub in

By Scott Wagar

03/13/2012

Over 50 seventh grade students from Bottineau, Newburg and Westhope came to Bottineau’s public school on Wednesday morning and participated in Scrubs Camp, an innovate program to teach students about the medical field.

“Scrubs Camp is to expose students to the choices of careers in health care,” said Joan Mortensen, co-chair of Bottineau’s Scrubs Camp. “Another goal at Scrubs Camp is to give them (the students) personal planning so they know what classes they need to take in school.”

Outside of speaking to the students about the health care field, the seventh graders also had some fun practicing medicine during their day at camp by giving the students hands-on experience in a variety of medical careers. The students were given the chance to learn how to give inoculations by injecting an orange with a saline solution through a needle and syringe; they blood typed themselves; and learned the proper way in how not to spread germs by placing a special liquid substance on their hands, observing them under a black light to see the germs on their hands, and then washing their hands correctly to remove the germs.

The seventh graders also learned how to create healthy snacks, do cares in first aid and blood pressure techniques and also the science of chiropractic arts.
Mortensen, who is a retired nurse, stated that Scrubs Camp is very important in the nursing field, because there is a shortage of nurses in health care today.

“The shortage is huge,” Mortensen said. “In a recent survey, the average age for nurses right now who are working is in their 50s, and there is not that many coming out of school with nursing degrees at the moment, so the nursing field is really short at the present time.

She added that for those individuals who chose careers in health care, it is a wise decision for them because they are in careers filled with the satisfaction of caring for others; along with jobs that have competitive wages, good benefits, vacations and retirement funds.    
With a day filled with fun and educational symposiums for Bottineau County’s seventh graders, Mortensen said that she was pleased with how the event turned out.

“It was awesome,” she said. “We were able to get the kids thinking about their future and a possible career in the health field.”