Diabetes Camp: Another successful year.
Marilyn Clougherty RN, MSN, CDE
Every year as July rolls around I anticipate another year of excitement, exhaustion, smiles and tears. I have been one of the Nursing Directors for an American Diabetes Association Camp near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for the past 21 years and wanted to share my stories with you. Our camp is currently held at the beautiful YMCA Camp Soles in Rockwood PA.
I am blessed to work with a great team of organizers from the local ADA, Children’s Hospital, and various insulin pump representatives to provide a Sunday through Friday overnight camp. Our leadership team starts in September to work toward improving our program from year to year. We bring up to 127 kids from the age of 8-16 together to provide them with a safe and encouraging environment. They are put in cabins with kids of like ages and do their small group activities during the day in their cabin groups. These kids have the opportunity to meet others with diabetes, establish lifelong friendships and actually learn about their diabetes through games and endless teachable moments. Let me take you through the day of a camper. At 7:30am the kids are awakened by their diabetes counselor who stays in the cabin with them along with a Camp Soles counselor to rise and shine to a urine test for ketones and blood glucose test. At 7:45 all the camp meets at the flag pole to share the accomplishments of any camper. “Shout outs” go to kids who have given their own shot for the first time or if someone put a pump site in. No accomplishment is too small! Kids then report to their medical team with their carb books in hand to review their dose adjustment needs of the morning based on food choices, activities scheduled and blood sugar trends while at camp. An example of a carb book page can be seen here:
Our dietitian, Terri McGee from Children’s Hospital and I work throughout the year to meet with the food service provider, chef in the kitchen and the camp director to help determine the carbohydrate counts for the various menu items that will be served throughout the week. This is no small task and Teri spends time every day while at camp making sure the product counts haven’t changed from the time we made the books.
We have 4 medical teams that consist of CDE’s, Physical Assistants, CRNP’s and residents from Children’s Hospital. We also have hospital support from our Medical Director back at Children’s as needed. We utilize medical nurses or school nurses that have an interest in kids with diabetes and come to support our cause. One of the busiest areas at the time of dosing is our pump changing station. I have several pump representatives that volunteer their time to come and help the medical teams by helping kids change their sites while the dosing team is working toward establishing doses for each meal. This year we had about 90 kids on insulin pumps so someone always needed a new site! This again is a great time for kids to learn more about site rotation and remembering to do that “fill cannula”. Once everyone’s doses are determined the diabetes counselor gets a listing of everyone’s doses, they head to the meal. Insulin is administered when the food is served and in front of the camper. The meals are served family style with measuring cups available to help portion accuracy.
After each meal, with a rest period after lunch, kids are off to activities. The medical team accompanies kids to events to be an extra pair of eyes but also to get to know the kids and take part in the fun. Not many other jobs provide the opportunity to spend the afternoon at a waterfront. It’s a tough job but someone has to do it! Usually kids attend 2 activity sessions between meals and back to the dosing tables to do it all again. Some activities we have at our camp are Zip line, archery, Aqua-jump ( a trampoline on the water) , sailing, canoeing, fishing, and games such as FIBER WARS! I have been a group exercise instructor for as long as I have been a diabetes educator and provide a couple exercise to music sessions in which I use songs the kids helped me choose and they have a great time dancing to the music. In the evenings, there is usually an all campus activity with exciting events like capture the flag or the last night’s big dance. When all the campers are successfully spent of all energy and put safely to bed the medical teams step up and provide midnight and 3 am rounds to every cabin to test those who need tested, set temporary basals for those who need cut or give injections as needed to those with ketones or high blood sugars. The medical staff rotates each night so all med staff teams are bright and cheery each day but our nights can be as busy as our days. Knowing a team is out keeping the kids safe at night is why I know our parents sleep well while their kids are at camp as well as me on my nights off.
Seeing kids live with diabetes in such a nurturing environment keeps me going every year. It is like a booster shot to watch these kids grow from campers, to counselors, to leaders and advocates for diabetes. The video attached is why I do it. I was standing with the camera man when our counselor Ty was being interviewed. He made me cry as I do every year when the week is through. I would like to close by sharing an email that was sent to me from a mom after her child returned home from diabetes camp.
“ I just want to take a moment to thank you and your entire staff that made this year’s diabetes camp such a wonderful and rewarding experience for my son Jason. He came home with a spark in his eye and a smile on his face. He had the time of his life. On Friday when we got home he was on his way to bed he came into the kitchen and told me that every finger prick, every shot , every high and low , and all the times he feels different or cant have dessert is worth it because he gets to go to diabetes camp.”
For me, you can’t buy more job satisfaction than that email provided for me. Priceless
http://www.wjactv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/camp-helps-kids-diabetes-overcome-obstacles-make-new-friends-3301.shtml?wap=0&
