Students Get Crash Course in Healthcare Field at Scrubs Camp
ST. CLOUD -- Students are getting a first-hand experience at St. Cloud State University this week. The university is hosting its Scrubs Camp for the third year in a row.
Hannah Forrest is a lead camp counselor. She says once again the camp is offering a variety of activities for high schoolers looking to pursue a healthcare career.
"We throw in some variety every year so that they get a different taste of everything. They get to hear about different careers and they get to see how other people work."
Lessons are focused on hands-on learning techniques in a safe environment.
"We have nursing simulations, we have respiratory therapy simulations, we have physicians that will come to talk to people about what their job is and how they became a physician."
The camp is three days. For camper Haley Richards this is her first year.
"My goal is to find an area that I really want to get into. I'm learning toward social working right now because we met with a lady earlier and it just seems really cool. But my goal is just to find one thing and try to stick with it and find everything that I can do to achieve that."
Other students have a couple years under their belt. Emma Harnes is one of them. She says her biggest lesson she's learned so far doesn't directly relate to healthcare.
"You don't need to decide what you're doing, right now. All of the counselors that I have, they're in college and they are doing medical stuff but they say 'oh it took me five years or I've switched my major' stuff like that."
And Forrest backs her up completely on the learned lesson.
"The main thing is that it's not only for kids that are interested in healthcare but kids that are interested in college. It's not just St. Cloud State University, we want to highlight other colleges for kids to go to, we don't just want to say only come to St. Cloud State University because you want to go be a nurse, you can be a nurse elsewhere."
About 80 students are enrolled in this year's Scrubs Camp.