WVU School of Nursing senior shares how 4-H led her to nursing school
Carley LaPole, a West Virginia University School of Nursing senior, recently shared her experience volunteering as a Camp Nurse-In-Training at Tri-County Intermediate 4-H Camp, which was held June 20-24 in Hedgesville, West Virginia. She shares how 4-H and her nursing curriculum have helped prepare her to make a difference.
Read her experience below.
This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to be a camp nurse in training at a place that’s very near to my heart. I’ve grown up in the 4-H program since I was 6 years old and began attending Tri-County 4-H camp at age 8.
Camp has always been the highlight of my summers, where we do things ranging from craft classes, outdoor hikes, singing, dancing, and community service projects. 4-H has played a huge role in my life and has helped prepare me for the future by offering opportunities for public speaking, leadership, and friendships that feel like family. 4-H is a global youth organization that promotes positive youth development for kids ages 8-21.
The 4-H pledge is: “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.” I grew up saying this pledge at every 4-H meeting and every week of camp. These are pledges that became embedded into the way I lived, and as I’ve continued to grow, I’ve begun to realize just how this pledge has affected my career path.
I am currently a senior nursing student at WVU. I have a passion for helping others and for safe, compassionate healthcare. The past three years in the nursing program have shown me how I need to "use my head for clearer thinking." It’s easy to get overwhelmed from classes or other activities and commitments. I’ve found myself many times feeling like there’s no way I can get everything done, and my head feels anything but clear and organized. To commit to this pledge, however, I have found ways to work towards clearer thinking. Reading, praying, spending time with friends, and being outside are ways that help.
“My heart to greater loyalty” is one that resonates with me towards the nursing profession. I want to be a nurse who is truly committed and loyal to my patients, one who cares about their whole health and wellbeing.
The 4-H program and my nursing degree at WVU have each shown me the importance of pledging my hands to larger service. Both have provided plenty of community service opportunities to give back to the people around me and have sparked a passion to seek out more of those opportunities to meet the needs of others.
Lastly, I have "pledged my health to better living." This is not only to take care of myself, but to keep me strong and prepared to take care of others. Routine exercise, healthy meals, and a good community of family and friends are all ways to work towards better, healthier living. These are things I can learn from, as well as share with patients and community members.
I have volunteered as a camp counselor at Tri-County 4-H Camp since I was 15 years old. I served as a junior counselor, then a teen counselor, and finally an adult counselor at age 18. This past June was our first year back at camp since 2019, and everyone was ecstatic to be there. At our 4-H camp, Camp Frame in Hedgesville, WV, we have three camps based on age groups: ages 8-12, 12-15, and 15-21.
I attended as a camper for one week, an adult counselor at younger camp, and then worked as a nurse-in-training at the intermediate camp. Camp Frame 4-H camp is affiliated with WVU, so it felt full circle getting to apply the knowledge and skills I’ve learned the past three years in the classroom and in clinicals to a place I’ve grown up in my whole life. It felt like I was seeing 4-H Camp from a fresh set of eyes.
I served as a counselor and a nurse, and that extra responsibility was challenging yet rewarding. I knew some of the campers from having counseled them two summers ago, and for all of the first-time campers, I enjoyed getting to know them and build a relationship of trust with them. Middle school can be a challenging age group to work with, but this group of kids was wonderful. The nurse I worked with and I found routines and patterns that worked well for these kids.
Camp was roughly five days, beginning the morning of June 20 and ending the afternoon of June 24. We had 104 campers this year, with more than half of them being first-time campers. On Monday, I worked with the camp nurses to check in all of the campers, review their health history, and collect and document any medications they had for the week. After that initial check-in, we began charting for each camper who had a medication or allergy and got the nurse’s cabin organized for the week. Throughout the week, we would have a medication station at each meal and before bedtime, we’d walk around camp to different classes, and we’d be present at every game or event in case a camper needed something.
We learned how to best communicate with different campers whom we saw frequently, and by the end of the week, it felt like we had an effective routine in place. I worked alongside an elementary school nurse from Morgan County. From her, I learned new techniques on how to talk to kids and how to approach different questions the middle school age group may have.
One of my favorite memories from this week of camp was the night I got to participate in a skit with the campers. Every year, on Wednesday night, the campers make a “machine.” It usually involves holding up beach towels and making machine noises, but they can create anything they want. One of the groups of campers made their skit to be where a camper entered the “machine” and a counselor came out. One of the girls in this group entered the tower of beach towels and said, “When I grow up, I want to be a nurse.” It melted my heart to hear that. I used to be in that girl’s shoes, and now here I am, about to graduate in the spring and live out that dream.
I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the kids new things throughout the week to help keep them safe and healthy. They joked with me every day for always carrying around band-aids. I loved being a camp nurse-in-training. It made me have a deeper appreciation for nursing and for all the nurses who helped make camp possible as I was growing up.
Working in nursing outside of a hospital setting opened my eyes to see truly how endless the options are as an RN. It made me eager to return to school to continue learning and participate in my community rotation this semester.
I’m forever grateful for all the things that 4-H has taught me and challenged me with. They have helped lead me and encourage me to be on the path I’m on today. I also have nothing but thanks to offer to the WVU School of Nursing for equipping me with the skills to excel in and enjoy an experience like this. Moving forward after graduation, I’d like to continue volunteering as a camp nurse at Camp Frame in the summers and provide education to campers of all ages.
— Carley LaPole
