By Ben Antonius | Daily Republic | June 27, 2009
Incoming Fairfield High School seniors Mayra Ochoa, 16, Amanda Lazcano, 18, and Cindy Nguyen, 16, left to right, look at equipment in the NorthBay Medical Center cath lab Thursday. About 30 teens attended a four-day "Nurse Camp" through NorthBay Healthcare where they learned about different aspects of the medical field. Photo by Brad Zweerink
FAIRFIELD - On Tuesday, they were run through a trauma scenario. On Wednesday, they watched a helicopter deliver patients to VacaValley Hospital. On Thursday, they saw leg veins being harvested before open-heart surgery.
In the future, they might be handling those very tasks themselves.
NorthBay Healthcare ran about 30 teens through a four-day 'Nurse Camp,' which was designed to introduce prospective nurses to the tasks they would be performing.
Nurse Mary Hampen, one of the program's creators, said the goal to give the teens enough hands-on experience to help them determine whether nursing is a career they want to pursue.
'These are 17-year-old high school kids, many of them who have never been inside a hospital,' Hampen said.
Among the attendees in the 2009 camp was Tavonna Edwards, who recently graduated from Rodriguez High School. She said she has 'always wanted' to be a nurse and has volunteered at hospitals in the past.
'My dream job would be to do patient care in the Third World,' she said.Everything Solano... Find It Here.
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The program, which started five years ago, is not the first time NorthBay -- or other hospitals -- has tried to attract people to nursing, a profession that continues to be in heavy demand nationally.
See the complete story at the Daily Republic online.
