DOBSON — Checking blood pressure, seeing the latest technology in radiology and watching a cesarean section are just a few of the things participants in this week’s Camp Med are getting to do.

Students from high schools in Mount Airy, Elkin, Yadkin County and Stokes County are spending three days this week touring Hugh-Chatham Memorial Hospital, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and the health career programs at Surry Community College.

The participants in this program are all students who have expressed an interest in pursuing a career in the medical field. Camp Med, as the program is known, is designed to give them a closer look at these fields so they can try to figure out if it really is something they want to pursue.

“It’s a camp for people who know they want to do this,” said April Crigger, a student at South Stokes High School. “If you don’t really want to do this you shouldn’t be here. It takes passion to understand what they’re talking about.”

“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse and I just wanted more experience,” said Erin Byrd, a student at South Stokes High School, of why she decided to participate.

By allowing these students to tour hospitals and to tour the programs such as nursing, medical assisting, physical therapy assistant and the paramedic training, Camp Med exposes them to aspects of the fields they would not necessarily get in a typical classroom setting.

“It’s a great experience. You get to meet a lot of new people,” said Adanna Gonzalez, a student at Elkin High School. “It’s different than taking the normal health classes in school.”

“You get to see more about the field you want to go into, see the nitty gritty stuff the textbook doesn’t tell you about,” said Amy Hill, a student at Mount Airy High School.

The camp also provides opportunities for students to do hands-on activities. On Tuesday, the students toured Surry Community College’s nursing, medical assisting, physical therapy assistant, emergency medical and fire and rescue programs. In the nursing section, the students learned the proper way to wash their hands and to control infection. In the medical assistant portion, they learned how to check blood pressure, meaning they had a chance to use the new stethoscopes they were given for participating in the program along with a lab coat. In the physical therapy portion of the day, a couple of students in each group got to experience some electro-shock therapy as Director Casey Vedder hooked the machine they use sometimes in therapy to make the volunteers involuntarily lift their hands. The students also learned skills such as how to listen for pulse and heart rate, how to look in someone’s ears and how to put on clean scrubs and gloves.

When the students toured Hugh-Chatham Memorial Hospital, they had the opportunity to shadow people in their chosen fields to a certain extent. Sam Tickles, a Mount Airy High School student, was one of the people who had the chance to see a surgery. She was able to watch a cesarean section while another student witnessed a hysterectomy.

“Yesterday I got to job shadow in radiology. I learned that they use a bunch of different things to make people’s insides light up,” said Calvin Yarboro, a student at Elkin High School.

Camp Med is funded by Northwest North Carolina Area Health Education Center in conjunction with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.