A Residential Nursing Camp Program: Effects on Adolescent Attitudes Toward Nursing Careers

Health policy experts predict that the current shortage of nurses will persist and perhaps worsen during the next 30 years. One of the most important causes of this problem is that too few youth choose nursing careers. A partnership was forged between university nursing faculty and nurse clinicians and administrators at a full-service hospital in northeastern Pennsylvania. The authors postulated that adolescent attitudes toward selecting nursing careers could improve after an intensive 4-day residential nursing camp program. We recruited local high school students generally interested in health care careers to attend the camp. Aggregate pre-camp and post-camp surveys obtained over 3 years demonstrated generally favorable attitudes toward nursing careers that improved at the conclusion of the camp. This camp program is an easily replicable intervention that successfully improves adolescents' attitudes toward pursuing nursing careers.