A nonscientific survey of university nursing admission organizers noted that children as young as middle school are choosing courses and electives as this was certainly happening in high school. It was the intention to introduce younger children to nursing as well as provide their parents with some suggestions on how to choose primary schooling courses with their child so that upon application for college or nursing school, the child would have all prerequisites for the nursing major.

As the ideas began to take shape, the organizers began to initiate an action plan. The camp volunteers had experience in nursing and education; however, it was identified that assistance would be needed in marketing, registration, and initial funding. In order to establish financial resources, a grant was written and received from Centocor Inc. for $15,000. This was to support advertising, marketing, and camp session supplies for a two year period. The university marketing department provided assistance with advertising in local camp newspapers and design of the nursing camp website. The website was located with the many other university supported summer camps. The website was very effective for communication, marketing, and easy collection/record of parent/child registration information. The marketing personnel from the university developed advertisement in local camp circulars such as Kids News and The Trend. Camp organizers moved forward with marketing efforts, using nursing department contacts in local schools used for clinical classes. This allowed for 4,800 flyers to be distributed in 3 school districts, YMCA facilities, and community centers.  Local branches of large corporations were less receptive to posting flyers, however, locally owned community businesses allowed the camp organizers to post camp flyers and brochures. Two local hospitals where alumni members were employed circulated camp flyers and information to employees by email. Finally, employee email was also used to market the camp to the employees at the University.

The university conference services department assisted to gather camper registration information and fees using an internet based ticket purchasing service. They provided examples of child consent, assumption of risk, camper code of conduct agreement, medical information/release, and photo release forms used by other university sponsored summer camps. 

Marketing for the camp was anticipated to use $1000 to $2000 of the annual camp budget.  This was less than the actual $ 2,500 cost of three newspaper ads, flyers, and brochures sent to families from local elementary and middle schools.  Flyers and brochures were first divided into packets according to class size then dropped off at the schools for distribution by teachers.  Discussions of camp costs included how much to charge campers and whether or not to include scholarships for registration fees. Registration cost needed to be enough to cover a portion of expenses, limit the number of registrations from less interested campers, and not be prohibitive to lower income families. The first year registration fee was set at $150, which when divided into a daily rate of $30 was much less than local child care or day camp costs. The camp organizers did not have the experience, time, or resources the first year to design and implement a camp scholarship program. This idea would be part of the plan the second year of the camp.

After registration, marketing, and funding was resolved, the camp organizers moved forward with the actual planning of the camp week. Reserving room space was a challenge. The camp was competing for space with other long standing and profitable sports and academic summer camps. In addition, summer university classes were in session, therefore the camp organizers personally contacted faculty teaching classes to identify if room conflicts with existing classes would occur. The nursing faculty teaching summer nursing courses supported the request for room changes to accommodate the camp activities.

The grant money relieved much of the organizer’s anxiety regarding financial support to purchase needed supplies for an effective and fun camp for the campers. A financial outline was developed that included a budget for each planned education/activity session, food and food storage, marketing, and camper supplies such as tee shirts, certificates of completion, and miscellaneous items. Chapter nursing alumni volunteered their expertise and time and served as session/activity planners and camp counselors. Also, one junior counselor volunteered as part of her high school service learning requirement.

Camp Demographics 

The total number of campers attending the first year’s summer camp was 11. All were female from the ages of 8 to 12. They were of various ethnicities and backgrounds. While a few of the campers knew another camper from school, a majority of the campers were from different school districts and first came to know each other during the camp.

The volunteers were mostly nurses who belong to the Xi Delta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau. Some were faculty from the University, but a good portion of the volunteers were members of the chapter that are staff nurses at local hospitals, nurse educators at local community colleges and universities, and some alumni from the university. We also had one high school student who attended the camp as a volunteer, which aided in her accomplishment of required high school volunteer hours.

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