News
Area students scrub in to learn about the medical field
Scott Wagar
03/11/2014
The seventh graders from Bottineau, Newburg and Westhope came to Bottineau’s public school on Wednesday morning and spent a day at Scrubs Camp, an innovated program to teach students about the medical field.
Scrubs Camp is an interactive program called the Rural Collaborative Opportunities for Occupational Learning in Health, of R-COOL-Health, which was established by the Center for Rural Health of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“Our reasoning for this is to make them aware of the classes they need to take when they get into high school,” said Deb Nelson, a junior high science teacher in the Bottineau School District who assists with the Scrub Camp. “Scrubs Camp is important because it teaches them what they need to do to go into the health related career.”
Individuals from local health care facilities came to the school on Wednesday to teach the seventh graders about the different fields in healthcare through a variety of interactive sessions throughout the school.
The students were able to participate and learn in such sessions as Allied Health, Injections, Gut in the Box, Aging/Stroke Simulation, Vitals, Hand washing/MRSA and First Aid.
“When the sessions are interactive, the students learn more and are more attentive,” Nelson said. “When I asked the students if they liked it, they said they had a lot of fun and they learned a lot about different careers.”
The seventh graders were also 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. Besides that, the packages 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.
Nelson stated that she was pleased with the Scrubs Camp.
“Everyone thought it went well,” Nelson said. “We are trying to grow our own. We want these great kids to stay in North Dakota and return to the rural areas to be our health care providers.”