Pemberton High nursing club tours hospital

At a time of year when many students are thinking about tuxedos and prom dresses, a group of Pemberton Township High School students yesterday made a different fashion statement.

During a tour of the Deborah Heart and Lung Center, the students donned zip-up suits made from scratchy blue paper, complete with booties and a hairnet. They might not be the typical teenage wear, but for members of the school's Future Nurses of America club these "blue bunny suits" may represent a look into the future.

The club, made up of 14 students and headed by school nurse Elisabeth McCartney, toured the Browns Mills hospital as part of National Nurses Week.

The students followed clinical educator Maureen O'Brien through the 161-bed specialty hospital, including the operating room, where the sterile suits are required. The students examined equipment, toured the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and talked to medical professionals.

According to O'Brien, it's necessary to spark an interest in nursing at an early age.

"By 2020, there will be an 800,000 to 1 million nursing shortage," she said, requiring hospitals like Deborah to look into outreach and recruitment programs before staff shortages reach critical levels.

For some students, her strategy seemed to pay off.

"I wanted to be a nurse before, but after today I want to do it even more," said Victoria Gampetro, 15.

Members of the hospital staff took time to encourage the students' interest; among them was Todd Williams, a nurse since 1982.

Pulled into a room to encourage Ryan Noone, 18, the only boy in the group, Williams admitted "there is a stigma of being a male nurse." But he also said: "You can work anywhere and you'll never be unemployed."

After speaking with Williams, the students worked with Ben, a simulator made out of rubber and hooked up to a computer. The instruction model for nursing students moaned lines like, "Oh, I can't breathe, and my chest hurts," as his chest rose and fell.

Students, at first seemingly nervous because of Ben's mechanized pain, quickly got over their shyness and crowded around, listening to his lungs and heartbeat through stethoscopes.

O'Brien encouraged their eagerness. "Listen, I'm going to give him pneumonia now," she said, fiddling with controls on the computer.

Although Ben proved popular, he was no match for the operating room and its blue suits. Although girls self-consciously giggled over their outfits in the hallway, it was all business inside the O.R., where many students had indicated they wanted to work.

Lisa Guarini, an O.R. nurse, passed around instruments and showed off the layout of a surgery suite. Clamps and forceps made the rounds, as Guarini explained a typical day in the life of an O.R. nurse.

"It's a very rewarding career. You get to fix people," she said.

Still, even those with a passion for medicine looked a little green after Guarini pulled out one of the instruments.

"I think we lost some of the O.R. people," McCartney said, as Guarini described how to use a bone saw.

While the bone saw might not have been for everyone, by the end of the tour students were talking excitedly about their goals in the nursing world.

"You get to see a lot of the stuff you don't get to see unless you're in a hospital bed," Noone said. He had been inspired by a teacher who started a medical assisting class last year at the school, and the program cemented his decision to work in the nursing profession.

"I think I want to go in to O.R. nursing," said Syaisha Alexander, 17. "It's fun, interesting and more active. I just wouldn't want to be in those suits all day."