<p><br /></p>

Traumatic Experience


Scenario Doctor Camp 2019

IMAGINE YOU are 16 years old and have just arrived home from school. You step inside your house and hear a low, muffled groan. It’s coming from the basement. After walking over and looking down the stairs, you see your dad, crumpled in a heap. What do you do? Roughly 30 teenagers were confronted with such a scenario this summer in Terre Haute in the controlled confines of Camp MD, a free day camp hosted by Indiana University School of Medicine—Terre Haute that aims to spark interest in careers in medicine.

The patient, in this case, wasn’t a dad but a dummy who needed his injuries assessed and stabilized before campers put him on a gurney and rushed him to a waiting ambulance.

For many campers, spending a day learning about trauma care—this year’s theme—was their first exposure to a career in medicine. In small, outlying communities, hospitals and private practices are not always nearby, making it hard for students to interact with or shadow a physician.

“We do a good job exposing students to what all is involved,” said Emma Eckrote, a second-year IU medical student and co-director of the camp. “And we give them a chance to try their hand at it.”

Staged from the Rural Health Innovation Collaborative simulation center, the day begins with classroom sessions on performing CPR, clearing an obstructed airway and splinting a broken bone. They also spend an hour with a medical student who moonlights on an ambulance to discuss triage, approaching a scene and remaining calm in stressful situations.

We do a good job exposing students to what all is involved, and we give them a chance to try their hand at it.

Emma Eckrote

Co-director, Dr. Camp/Camp MD