What do wheelchair racing, rock wall climbing, and stitching up steak have in common? These activities were all part of Survivor Aroostook V, a week-long health care career exploration camp for teens held earlier this summer at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. The camp was sponsored by The Aroostook Medical Center, Local Area 1 Workforce Investment Board, Northern Maine Community College, and other local businesses and health care organizations.
"Survivor Aroostook is a week-long camp that we run to promote health
care careers to students who have just completed the eighth grade," said
Mary Berube, Human Resources Manager at The Aroostook Medical Center and camp
co-coordinator. Our goal is to really get them thinking about entering the
health care field after they graduate from high school and go on for their
college degrees."
There is currently a nationwide shortage of workers in certain areas of health care, and the problem isn't expected to improve much over the next several years. About 3.5 million new health care jobs are expected to be created in the United States between 2002 and 2012. In nursing, the workforce is aging and the number of younger nurses is decreasing: in 1980, the number of registered nurses under the age of 30 was 25%; but by 2000, the figure had fallen to 9%. Locally, it continues to be difficult for health care organizations to fill certain positions.
"Being in a rural area, we have even more of a challenge than some urban areas may have in attracting people to our area," added Berube. "What we've found is that the most success we have is in training people from the local area, especially Aroostook County."
At Survivor Aroostook V, a group of 57 campers who may someday be local health care professionals learned about a variety of occupations during a week of teambuilding, exploration, and fun.
"Campers are introduced to about 15 different health care careers by way of hands-on exploration," Berube said. "For example, a physician teaches students how to suture a wound and physician assistants teach the campers how to put on casts. The Maine Wheelers come and show the campers how they play basketball in a wheelchair and let the campers compete with them. We also do a disability obstacle course where campers learn what it's like to be a patient so they understand how important compassion is in health care. So the campers are able to do some hands-on things while at the same time learning about what it's like to do different careers."
After
arriving at camp on Monday morning, campers were divided into tribes, just
like on the television show. The five tribes completed physical and mental
challenges throughout the week, and on the last day of camp, the winning tribe
was revealed.
The mock disaster on the last night of camp was one of the campers' favorite activities. The disaster, which was a surprise for them, required campers to use knowledge gained throughout the week to simulate what might happen in a real emergency. Campers arrived at Hanson Lake in Mapleton expecting a canoe race but were startled by an explosion while waiting on shore. Campers soon learned that six volunteer victims had been sitting around a campfire and had been seriously injured by the explosion. Each volunteer pretended to have a different injury, and campers immediately began playing medical roles that had been assigned to them earlier in the week.
After working with real EMTs to stabilize the victims on-site, campers rode with the victims in an ambulance to a mock emergency room at Northern Maine Community College. In the mock emergency room, campers pretending to be doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other health care professionals performed many of the same procedures and tests that would happen in a real emergency room.
"My favorite activity was the mock trauma, because it made me feel like I was in the doctor's shoes," said Jessica Beaulieu, a camper from Presque Isle. "I never really understood how much of a team activity it was. I thought it was a good learning experience."
This year marked the fifth consecutive year the camp has been held. Most campers who attended in 2003, the first year the camp was held, will be entering college in the fall, and many of them remain interested in healthcare.
"We started polling our first-year campers and we found that a significant number are actually going on to pursue health care careers and have been accepted at colleges and universities for those programs," explained Berube. "They are really pursuing a wide variety of careers. We have several pre-med students, many nursing students, and some future physical therapists, so it's a wide variety."
Michelle Osgood of Easton, a camper from the first Survivor Aroostook in 2003, said the camp helped her decide to pursue a career in health care. "After coming to Survivor and doing the mock car accident, putting a cast on my arm, stitching steak, and doing the wheelchair race, I just knew that health care was for me. I knew that I wanted to be a health care professional once I was a team leader for the car accident. The adrenaline and everything that was going on, it was just the coolest experience for me."