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UMC Introduces Middle-Schoolers to Nursing Careers at Camp Scrubs

Camp Scrubs 1

Camp Scrubs participant John Lazzeroni, 12, impersonates a trauma patient attended by LifeNet flight nurses in an exercise on the UMC Trauma Center’s new rooftop helipad.

Camp Scrubs 2

Dan Judkins, injury prevention specialist with the UMC Trauma Center, gives Camp Scrubs participants an overview on disaster preparedness.

Twenty Tucson middle-school students found out what it takes to be a registered nurse this week at University Medical Center's "Camp Scrubs."


By Katie Riley, AHSC Office of Public Affairs
June 12, 2009

Twenty Tucson middle-school students learned if they have what it takes to be a registered nurse this week at University Medical Center's "Camp Scrubs."

This is the sixth year UMC has offered the popular summer camp, said Ellice Mellinger, clinical educator for perioperative services at UMC and the camp's director.

"Arizona and the nation are facing a critical nursing shortage and we must recruit more young people into the profession. Camp Scrubs is one way we can show teens some of the joys of nursing," she said.

Getting seventh- and eighth-graders thinking about nursing as a possible career choice gives them time to adjust their high school coursework with an eye toward getting into nursing school, Mellinger said.

During Camp Scrubs, students hear from UMC nurses in a variety of specialties, including emergency services, infection control, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiovascular services and perioperative services. They also shadow working nurses, learn about nursing degrees offered through The University of Arizona and Pima Community College, and receive training and certification in first aid and CPR.

"We want to show these impressionable young people that nursing is more than giving medications and bed baths, that it also has some very exciting aspects," she said.

UMC, with more than 1,000 registered nurses on staff, can show the students a huge array of specialty nursing, she added.

In 2003, UMC was the first hospital in Arizona to earn the prestigious Nurse Magnet Hospital designation from the American Nurses Association, and UMC remains the only hospital in Southern Arizona to win this so-called "Nobel prize for nursing." Magnet Hospital designation is held by only 2 percent of all acute-care hospitals in the United States.

© 2009 Arizona Board of Regents