For Savannah Peddicord, a BSN student at UNMC College of Nursing, a stint at summer camp earlier this year offered an example of the wide variety of opportunities available to nurses – as well as the chance to wipe a few noses and apply a few Band-Aids.
Peddicord, a Kansas City native, served as a student nurse at the health center at Brant Lake Camp in Brant Lake, New York, from June 15 to Aug. 11. The summer included “a little bit of everything,” Peddicord said, from sorting and administering appropriate medication for the 500 youth campers to providing care for cuts, scrapes and bumps.
“It was almost like a mini-ER,” she said. “If there was an injury, someone would radio us on the walkie-talkie, we’d go get them in the golf cart and assess them, and we had a doctor there for a few hours a day to be able to take patients as well.”
Going into the camp, Peddicord said she was unsure how her nursing schooling and clinical experience would fit with the requirements of the job. But the array of duties proved to be useful and insightful, especially because she had little experience working with children prior to the camp.
“A lot of responsibility was actually given to me, which I appreciated because I got to use my nursing knowledge and judgment to be able to treat kids,” she said. “It was maybe more immersive than your traditional clinicals.”
When she wasn’t tending to the ailing, injured and sometimes homesick, Peddicord said she and her fellow nurses and supervisors had the chance for some bonding in the woods and on the lake.
“I got really close with the kids and the nurses … I got the best of both worlds while having the opportunities to be on the lake and be outside,” she said. “It was fun having that nursing aspect with the outdoors.”
The camp first came on Peddicord’s radar when UNMC College of Medicine alum Beth Bernstein, PhD, medical director of Brant Lake Camp, reached out about the opportunity. Dr. Bernstein said the camp elected to add nursing students to the medical staff this summer, so she contacted UNMC for some names.
“A handful of nursing students inquired about the position, but none as quickly as Savannah,” Dr. Bernstein said. “She was an amazing addition and learned so much.”
Peddicord said the summer changed her outlook on nursing in that it showed her a different side of the profession.
“It changed my perspective on nursing just in the way that nursing is a lot more than just the medications or putting on a Band-Aid or something like that,” she said. “It goes a lot deeper. Especially when dealing with kids, you get to really learn how to develop connections with people.
“With nursing, there’s so many more opportunities outside of just the hospital setting.”