Wright State University and Premier Health – Nursing and Health Careers Camp encourages high school students to build skills and learn about health care careers

More than 40 high school students from around Ohio learned to stop a bleeding wound, perform CPR, and other basics of a day in the life of a health care professional at Wright State University and Premier Health’s Nursing and Health Careers Camp.  

Wright State hosted the camp for the second consecutive year from July 16-18 for rising junior and senior high school students.

Bethany DeLong, the associate director of enrollment and retention in Wright State’s College of Health, Education and Human Services, said the students learned about a variety of health-related majors that the college has to offer, such as nursing, social work, rehabilitative services or integrated human services. 

 “We hope participants learned more about each of these areas to further pinpoint their interests,” DeLong said.  

 The first two days of the camp took place at Wright State University, where students received training in CPR, “Stop the Bleeding” and “Question, Persuade, Refer,” or suicide prevention training. The students also learned more about how to become a Raider and could speak to students in health care programs at Wright State. 

Participants worked through a patient care simulation, using Wright State’s state-of-the-art mannequins that can speak. The mannequins also have a pulse, can breathe and mimic a pulse with heart sounds. 

 After two days at Wright State, students spent the third day of camp at Premier Health, where they toured the Miami Valley Hospital campus and listened to seminars on topics such as social work, home health nursing and other career opportunities. 

“I’m learning new stuff that I didn’t know much about,” said Nicholas Gay, a junior at DECA High School who participated in the camp. 

A major focus of the camp is enhancing the students’ skill sets, DeLong said. Specifically, she hopes the students learned communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking through the career camp. 

“We know these skills are important to work on regardless of major choice and want them to leave feeling more confident in these areas,” DeLong said. 

 The camp is part of a larger 30-year partnership with Premier Health, which was established on April 26 of this year. DeLong hopes this camp will further deepen the connection to Premier Health and encourage high school students to pursue healthcare.  

DeLong hopes that students come away from camp with a better understanding of how health care teams and professionals work together to provide a comprehensive care experience. She is also looking forward to seeing students connect with Wright State faculty and staff, Premier Health staff, and other students who are considering working in the healthcare industry. One of DeLong’s goals is to see the students get more excited and interested in prospective careers. 

“They will walk away with information about opportunities available to them at Wright State and Premier Health. We want them to leave feeling excited about returning to Wright State to pursue their education,” she said. 

 One of DeLong’s goals for the camp is to encourage students to build relationships with each other, with Wright State’s faculty and staff, and Premier Health’s staff.  

“It is great to see how quickly students form bonds with one another in just three days and how much more of their personalities we get to see on day three compared to day one,” DeLong said. “We also love seeing those lightbulb moments when a student begins to feel comfortable with a skill or they share they want to pursue the healthcare field, either because of an activity or the camp as a whole.”