For the first time ever, UT’s College of Nursing has joined Camp Koinonia for its annual gathering of young people who give a group of university mentors from many different educational backgrounds and specialties the opportunity to engage with them in a week filled with both learning and fun.
A group of 7 students from the Accelerated Bachelor’s in Nursing (ABSN) program have volunteered under the guidance of Drs. Lynn Beeler and Carrie Bailey to help out and join the excitement for the week while they seek to understand and appreciate a wide, diverse variety of ability levels and nursing care needs for a magnificent gathering of campers and student counselors. Dr. Bailey is looking forward to helping her student volunteers learn more about and care for this unique population.
The ABSN students had a wide range of reasons and desires for coming to camp. From the chance to learn from the range of experiences of the RNs who also volunteer their time here to engaging in the community health aspect of the camp, all 7 made it clear they were excited for the opportunity to help create a new connection for the College of Nursing and for future students to continue to engage with their community. Since most nurse clinical settings are in a strictly medical or hospital milieu, the students are eager to be thrown into an extraordinary environment that not many future RNs get a chance to experience. A couple of the student volunteers decided to join precisely because they did have experience in a setting like Camp Koinonia and wanted to continue to enjoy and build on their past work with differently-abled youth, this time adding in their nursing knowledge and skill set to make an even greater impact for their campers.
Check back with the UT College of Nursing blog for more news as these 7 ABSN students share their new understandings of this great group of campers…plus some tales of adventure!