News
Scrubs camp held in Bottineau
Scott Wagar
03/12/2013
Over 90 seventh graders from Bottineau, Newburg and Westhope came to Bottineau’s public school on Wednesday morning and traded in their school clothes for scrubs and spent a day at Scrubs Camp, an innovate program to teach students about the medical field.
“Scrubs Camp is an interactive program called Rural Collaborative Opportunities for Occupational Learning in Health, or R-COOL-Health, which was established by the Center for Rural Health of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences,” said Joan Mortensen, co-chair of Bottineau’s Scrubs Camp. “It’s an opportunity to expose students to careers in the health care field. The presenters spoke about the pros and cons of their occupation, educational requirements and encourage students to start math and science classes to get them ready for college.”
Individuals from St. Andrew’s Health Center, Good Samaritan Society Bottineau, First District Health Unit, Bottineau Ambulance Service and Chiropractic Arts volunteered their time on Wednesday to educate the students in Bottineau County about careers in the medical field.
Outside of speaking with the students, healthcare workers gave students the chance to learn how to give shots; back exercises, coding, handwashing, blood typing and vitals. The students were also granted the opportunity to see an emergency scenario, a stroke simulation, measuring sound decibels through a meter and the chance to exam the anatomy of an ear through a special box.
“It is called an ‘Ear in the Box,’ which came to us from the University of North Dakota and is literally a ear in a box that teaches students about the ear,” said Mortensen, who added the inoculation exercise this year had a different feel to it, too.
When it came to teaching the students how to give shots, we normally use oranges, but this year we used a piece that looks and feels like skin.
The seventh graders were each given educational packages which granted them information on health science careers, fastest growing occupations, the newest jobs, pay rates and internet resources for a variety of subjects in the field.
The packages also included recipes for healthy snacks, traditional foods of the state and an application for a Scrubs Academy which will take place this summer at the University of North Dakota from June 17-20.
With a day filled with fun and educational symposiums for Bottineau County’s seventh graders, Mortenson said that she was pleased with how the event turned out.
“It went very well,” she said.