More than 60 area middle and high school students will have the ability this weekend to try on a stethoscope to get a feeling of what it would be like as a nurse.

On Saturday, Marquette University and Waukesha County Technical College will be sponsoring a Nurse Camp for middle and high school students ages 12 to 18.

The camp will focus on preparing the students for a career in nursing, a field very much in need, said Gloria Rhone, diversity recruiter and adviser for the College of Nursing.

With 63 students currently registered for the program and about 16 different middle and high schools represented, this year's Nurse Camp will be the biggest camp in the three years it has taken place, said Karen Turcott, a nursing instructor at WCTC.

Three years ago, Marquette and WCTC received a $700,000 congressional grant from the U.S. Department of Education to "better recruit and inform the underserved population" about nursing, Turcott said.

The Nurse Camp is only one of the ways the grant is working to help encourage a diverse population to enter the field of nursing. Through the camp, Marquette and WCTC hope to recruit a more diverse group of students to eventually pursue jobs in nursing.

"The College of Nursing has a commitment to create a diverse learning environment and to recognize that diversity is the key to excellence in health care," Rhone said.

She said the camp is important for future college students to meet new people.

"Making connections at the middle and high school level is key to developing a pool of future nursing students from diverse backgrounds," Rhone said. "At Nurse Camp 2005, students will have an opportunity to learn about nursing as a career, build academic and social supports and learn health promotion skills."

The day will begin at 7:15 a.m., when the students participating will meet at Marquette and be transported to WCTC to begin a number of learning sessions, lectures and activities about nursing. After learning skills such as assessing blood pressure, listening to the heart and lungs and using nursing equipment, the students will be transported back to Marquette to begin the second half of their day.

Once back at Marquette, students will be served lunch and will listen to six 30-minute lectures on various medical topics from nurses in the area and Marquette College of Nursing members.

Angella Walker, a senior in the College of Nursing, is volunteering to help run the camp. She said it was important for her to volunteer because many young students are not aware of what they will need to get in the field of nursing.

"Students are underprepared, and the sooner we can expose them to what they will need to go into nursing, the better," she said.

Rhone believes it is necessary for a diverse group of people to be nurses because many people under other people's care would like to have their cultural needs met.

"As our society and consumers of health care become more and more culturally diverse, it is imperative that we recruit and prepare nurses from those cultures who can relate to clients in culturally specific ways." Rhone said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 28 2005.