Tulsa Campers Learn Life-Saving Lessons

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Would you know what to do if you came upon a group of screaming victims of a bio-terroist attack?

Campers at Tulsa Community College's Camp Scrubs reacted pretty well during an on-campus exercise.

Curtis Baker told boys and girls of Camp Scrubs about his time as chief of nursing at the prison in Cushing.

"Most people don't know that most nurses don't work in a hospital," Jim Hicks, an instructor, said.

Lots of training is conducted in a 12-bed emergency room classroom. Each bed has a mannequin with remote controlled innards and the mannequins give the kids practice.

"They've been learning the basic skills of becoming a nurse," Hicks said.

The kids evaluate patients, take vital signs and other things like that. What they don't know is that they'll be part of a mock drill later complete with lots of over-acting.

Across campus a group of volunteers is getting make-up, applied by some drama students, meant to simulate skin burned in a mustard gas bio-terrroism attack.

The whole idea is to see how the campers react, do they remember how to evaluate a patient and apply an appropriate treatment.

Most of the kids, made contact with a patient and reacted pretty well.

"They did the right thing," Hicks said.

Camp Scrubs is a regular part of TCC's summer program for kids. The camps at TCC run Monday through Thursday from early June through the first week of August.