High school students interested in becoming registered nurses, physicians, occupational therapists or any number of occupations in the medical profession participated in Camp Med 2022 Summer Program provided by Caldwell UNC Health Care and the Northwest Area Health Education Center, an initiative of the Wake Forest School of Medicine.
“Camp Med is a great opportunity to expose students to the world of possibilities in health careers,” said Superintendent Dr. Don Phipps. “We want our students to apply these experiences to their education whenever they make decisions about course selection, club participation or community involvement so they will be better prepared for reaching their career goals after high school graduation.”
The program provided a range of unique educational experiences in the healthcare workforce, from meeting practitioners to observing state-of-the-art technology to touring healthcare facilities and learning about the services provided to patients. Participants also explored different medical career pathways, including pharmacy, surgical services, diabetic health, anesthesiology, diagnostic imaging and behavioral health.
Highlights of the program involved clinical rounds and observing medical procedures. "I really liked getting to experience what surgeons and anesthesiologists do,” said Emilee Bradley, a sophomore at Hibriten High School “I loved seeing gall bladder surgery performed. It was exciting! I especially liked scrubbing in and wearing scrubs in the operating room like an actual medical professional."
As a culminating event, a graduation ceremony was held and students received certificates of completion. Each student spoke on how the program affected or influenced his or her future career decisions.
Only rising freshmen, sophomores or juniors meeting specific academic performance in addition to having career goals in health sciences were selected to participate in the weeklong summer camp, which has been offered to Caldwell County Schools students for more than a decade.
Christina Good, Human Resource executive for Caldwell UNC Healthcare, led Camp Med ’22 in Caldwell County and overall, 18 camps were held this summer in North Carolina.
Contributed from Caldwell County Schools
