Boy Scout Camp Health Officer

[sublimation]

Has anyone worked at a Boy Scout camp in any sort of medical capacity?

 

[adamjh3]

I did one day hike with a troop around here. It was fun but it sucked at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to give a hand with the minor boo-boos but carrying 30 pounds of equipment on top of what you personally need for the hike is rough if you're not used to it. I think the majority of the time camps and the like would rather contract an RN for a position like that because of the ability to dispense OTC meds, so the opportunities at my level of training are slim in this area. But that's just from my experience.

Do you have specific questions? Listing your location and level of training will help people help you

 

[sublimation]

I did one day hike with a troop around here. It was fun but it sucked at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to give a hand with the minor boo-boos but carrying 30 pounds of equipment on top of what you personally need for the hike is rough if you're not used to it. I think the majority of the time camps and the like would rather contract an RN for a position like that because of the ability to dispense OTC meds, so the opportunities at my level of training are slim in this area. But that's just from my experience.

Do you have specific questions? Listing your location and level of training will help people help you

I'm actually starting an EMT-B class this upcoming semester. I was a lifeguard at said camp for the last 2 years, so I've gotten to know the camp fairly well. The National Camp Standards for the BSA require an EMT-B or higher for the position, so I would be qualified assuming I pass the class. I guess my questions for anyone who had this position would be how intense the situations were for someone who will have a year of experience as an EMT-B.

 

[ffemt8978]

Jon has done a lot of stuff like that, but he hasn't been around in a couple of weeks.

You can try sending him a PM.

 

[DavidM]

I've worked as a boy scout leader at camp and on trips and been the medical person. I haven't worked on the camp staff but was friends with the guy who was the camp nurse.

He had to handle everything from handing out medications in the morning to the kids to splinting broken arms. Nothing was ever too major but the injuries and situations were very diverse.

Not to be discouraging but all the camps I know of staff RNs for the position just because it makes more sense for them.

 

[d0nk3yk0n9]

I wasn't our summer camp's health officer, but I've worked at a Boy Scout camp for the past six summers (will be there again this summer) and fill in as the health officer on her night off, so feel free to ask me any questions you want. If I can't answer them, I'll send them on to either our health officer or our council's supervising physician (aka my father).

 

[Chris07]

I've worked as a Summer Camp Health officer for 2 summers, 3 after this summer. It is a blast. 99% of the job is handing out bandaids and dealing with minor dehydration. I work in a relatively small camp so in a 10 week period I only get about 1-2 cases where I need to upgrade from a bandaid dispenser to an EMT.

 

[johnrsemt]

I did 2 years (2002 and 2003) as A BSA Health officer.

Yes you can work as a Basic at a Scout or YMCA or church camp; in fact most camps that know anything prefer it. They don't have to pay as much. And you can do everything that a Nurse can do; including OTC and some very basic Perscription medications.
I know there will be an uproar over the last sentence: Your camp needs a Medical Director although most already have one: he needs to write orders/protocols for you to dispense Medications.
IE: Johnny has a headache that has not gone away after 20oz of H2O in 20 min; give him 400mg of Ibuprofen.
Jimmy has pink eye: give him 3 times a day script antibiotic eye drops: that one you may have to send into a urgent care; depends on the doc.
Our camp had well trained experience Basics and Medics for the last 10 years and our Medical Director has gotten better at giving us what we wanted.

A Medical Director for Camp is the same as a Medical director for EMS. He writes orders and does some training with you. Usually the medical director is a GP or Family Practice Doc.

You will learn alot more at a camp than you will at an EMS service: I know at a glance if a patient is going to need sutures or not. At an ED I worked at after Medic school I was better at knowing how many sutures than a few of the doctors.
You are basically working at your own clinic; and you can't transport everything. Our camp was 35 min from a Urgent Care; and 45 minutes from a hospital; and 40 minutes from an Ambulance. My first year we transported 7 by ambulance; in 2003 they transported 0. That was with an average of 1,000 Scouts, leaders and Staff every week.
We actually had a Scout that stopped breathing 2 times; while we worked with him; (allergies aggravating asthma) and he never went to the ED.

Prior to camp see if you can spend some time at Medical Director: learn about signs/symptoms of different illnesses; you will see them all at camp; also hopefully you can learn about what does or doesn't need suturing.

PM me if you want and I will keep an eye on this thread also

 

[johnrsemt]

Sorry; most camps that the management knows anything about medical stuff like EMT-B's or P's over nurses because they are USUALLY better with Medical/Trauma emergencies: we had one camp not too far from ours that used the same EMS/ ED that the RN called 911 over 100 times one summer with only 300 church girls per week.

 

[Chris07]

Sorry; most camps that the management knows anything about medical stuff like EMT-B's or P's over nurses because they are USUALLY better with Medical/Trauma emergencies: we had one camp not too far from ours that used the same EMS/ ED that the RN called 911 over 100 times one summer with only 300 church girls per week.

I personally think a nurse would be better suited for the Clinic aspect of camp first aid (plus having a nurse would take a lot of the legal grey areas away from me doing things like giving OTC meds which I try to avoid...). Having an EMT to help when the clinic is busy or to take charge when something 911 worthy happens is in my mind ideal. But then again who's going to pay for a nurse and an EMT?

 

[mycrofft]

EMT does not equal RN.

Check your local laws. As far as I have been told, in Calif an EMT-B may not give or furnish medications ("furnishing" is handing out a prescription med already ordered and packaged), and any EMT level which does give drugs has to in accordance with a legal set of standing orders and under medical control.

That said, having done girl scout coverage for up to a couple days, I bet you may be tasked to secure the meds and the counselor or even the child may use them if it meets the order. (It's balled up, but the thrust is to keep EMT's from handing out meds). Check the applicable laws.

Also, there is nothing per se allowing you to "keep someone " for observation or other reasons; with a proper protocol, a nurse could. RUle em in, rule em out, send em back to the cabin, or send them home or to the hospital.


As an experienced EMT you may have a better psychological grasp of responding to emergencies than many nurses. We have many older threads about standby and camps and the questions raised repeatedly include what is your legal scope versus what they will expect/try to get you to do. "Our insurance will cover you" does not constitute a legal guarantee your expected duties will be safe or legal.

Lastly, if you are going to take it, please insist upon inspecting the facility. I virtually shut down the one I was at for a work weekend due to rodent scat and urine, rodent nests in bedding and supplies, hot water didn't work, some electrical circuits didn't work for no apparent reason, the stretcher was mildewed through, etc. No fire extinguisher. I practically guarantee you the supply situation will be poor unless you hump in your own.
But, when it works, it can be a blast!

 

[fortsmithman]

I think here in Canada Scouts Canada uses there own Medical Venturers. Here's a link to the site.
http://www.medvents.ca/

 

[JPINFV]

Check your local laws. As far as I have been told, in Calif an EMT-B may not give or furnish medications ("furnishing" is handing out a prescription med already ordered and packaged), and any EMT level which does give drugs has to in accordance with a legal set of standing orders and under medical control.

How far does a medical want to stretch the "assist with physician prescribed devices, including but not limited to..." (emphasis added) part of the scope of practice? They're also looking at changing "oral glucose and sugar solutions" to "over the counter medications approved by LEMSA including, but not limited to,oral glucose and aspirin."

http://www.emsa.ca.gov/about/EMT 15...MT_Revised_15daycomment_Draft_Regulations.pdf

Not saying anyone is going to use this to the extent needed for long term camp care, but if the revision goes through it is in the state scope... arguably.

 

[mycrofft]

In case they don't, a state ought to certify medical standby people for sporting events, camp, etc. Keeping a trained EMT from giving an antacids or MDI inhaler when a camp counselor can is not logical.
The time I was "it" for two days,I wound up carrying all meds in my person bag (no locking cabinet), including, get this, a mom's fentanyl lollipop (which I promptly gave back to her with stiff injunction what NOT to do with it).

 

[sublimation]

Thanks for all the responses all!

As it sounds right now, there won't be a medical "director." There is a physician in charge of the council's medical operating procedures, but they aren't actually at the camp during operation.

 

[Chris07]

The fact that I can't legally give an adult with chest pain an aspirin because I have some medical training but the kid next to me can because he has no training doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Who made up these laws? What's even funnier is that we can assist with an epi-pen but cannot administer one. Fact is epi-pens are ready-made and require no drawing of medication...and we are able to identify anaphylaxis/severe asthma...so what is the reasoning we can't administer the most basic of emergency meds (which has no contraindications in emergencies btw)? Are they afraid we might drop it in the mud before we use it? Crazy system we live in. :wacko:

 

[Chris07]

Thanks for all the responses all!

As it sounds right now, there won't be a medical "director." There is a physician in charge of the council's medical operating procedures, but they aren't actually at the camp during operation.

Double post: Sorry!

You MUST have written standing orders from a physician. The doctor who writes your orders is technically your medical director. They don't need to be onsite to have that title. Hopefully that doctor is cool and is willing to help you out. TECHNICALLY according to BSA standards, that doctor has to be available by phone 24/7.

 

[JPINFV]

The fact that I can't legally give an adult with chest pain an aspirin because I have some medical training but the kid next to me can because he has no training doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Who made up these laws?

Who said the kid next to you knows to give ASA to a person with chest pain? Furthermore, there's a difference between "an off duty EMT" saying "take this" and some random dude off the street saying "take this." Assuming you knew nothing about EMS training, are you more likely to listen to "some dude" or "off-duty EMT" giving you treatment choices?

What's even funnier is that we can assist with an epi-pen but cannot administer one. Fact is epi-pens are ready-made and require no drawing of medication...and we are able to identify anaphylaxis/severe asthma...so what is the reasoning we can't administer the most basic of emergency meds (which has no contraindications in emergencies btw)? Are they afraid we might drop it in the mud before we use it? Crazy system we live in. :wacko:

I think you're over blowing the concept of "assisting" with medication.

 

[JPINFV]

In case they don't, a state ought to certify medical standby people for sporting events, camp, etc. Keeping a trained EMT from giving an antacids or MDI inhaler when a camp counselor can is not logical.
The time I was "it" for two days,I wound up carrying all meds in my person bag (no locking cabinet), including, get this, a mom's fentanyl lollipop (which I promptly gave back to her with stiff injunction what NOT to do with it).

As I mentioned in the reply above this, there's a difference between being some dude with most likely minimal first aid training saying "take this" and someone trained in medicine saying, "here take this." There's a difference between, borrowing a phrase from the supervisor at my first aid job (may that park rest in piece, screw you Irvine Company), "Mommy medicine" and actual medicine. Are you prescribing an antacid as a civilian with no/minimal training or as a medical professional? How you're viewed by your patient matters as they're much less likely to question the advice of a medical professional.

In terms of OTC medications, we had them for employees at the first aid job (it was a water park) and we were supposed to direct guests to the gift shop next door. However if anyone asked I said what we had, but never advised anyone which to take. It's not much of a dodge, but I was going to try my best to not give the impression that I'm recommending for or against taking an OTC pain reliever.

 

[d0nk3yk0n9]

Thanks for all the responses all!

As it sounds right now, there won't be a medical "director." There is a physician in charge of the council's medical operating procedures, but they aren't actually at the camp during operation.

Sounds like a medical director to me.

As long as you have a physician in charge of writing protocols and available by phone just in case, you should be good.