Where Medicine Meets the Outdoors

It was Tess Benson’s second year as the YMCA Camp Icaghowan camp nurse when she got a walkie-talkie call that a camper had been stung by a bee. This was the first time he had been stung, and almost immediately, the counselor recognized that he was having an allergic reaction.

Tess responded quickly, administering an epinephrine auto-injector from the camp’s emergency medical kit. She kept the camper calm, reassured him, and continued monitoring his vital signs. She also immediately contacted the camp director and the camper’s parents. Thanks to her swift response and steady presence, the camper promptly received the care he needed, de-escalating an otherwise scary moment.

While medical emergencies are rare, the camp nurse is on-site and on-call 24 hours a day, ready to administer bandages and ice packs, provide a camper with some much-needed quiet time amidst the camp excitement, or react if a more serious situation arises. Icaghowan is not unique in its need for this special role. Camp nurses play a vital role in the safety and health of participants at many of the YMCA of the North’s overnight camps, and a recent expansion of this key position to include interns has benefited both camps and future nurses.

More than Band-Aids: Care, calm, and connection at the heart of being a camp nurse

The camp nurse is a volunteer position responsible for a long list of health and wellness-related tasks. A key responsibility that camp nurses manage is administering medication to campers, which can involve more than 60 kids at larger camps, some of whom may require multiple medications. They also serve as a main communication point, keeping parents informed if their child is ill or injured and how they are being cared for.

“Sometimes a headache or stomachache has more to do with homesickness, or possibly they didn’t sleep well the night before. So the health center also serves as a quiet place for campers to slow down and rest and have some quiet time amidst the excitement out in camp,” said Sarah Beman, who has been a pivotal part of the camp nurse community.

Sarah was a camper at Icaghowan starting in1989 and served on staff from 1990-92. In 2010, she reconnected with Icaghowan when she sent her seven-year-old to camp. When camp reached out, looking for nurses, she signed up for the following summer.

In 2011, Sarah spent a “busy, chaotic, wonderful” week as the camp nurse.

Outside of camp, Sarah worked in her full-time nursing role, teaching nursing classes at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. At the time, the students she taught were working on an associate degree program to earn their RN licensure. Internships were difficult for those students to obtain (due to the priority given to bachelor’s degree-level students instead).

During Sarah’s first week as a camp nurse, she immediately thought of how beneficial the experience would be for her students, and she knew her students would benefit from problem-solving in real-world scenarios. She discussed it with Bob Gagner (Icaghowan director, 2006-15), and in 2012, she returned to the camp nurse position for four weeks, ready to broaden the impact of this role.

That summer, she brought four students (one each week) to serve as camp nurse interns. Sarah shared, “The students had a really good experience working with the kids. They got to do a little bit of everything from calling parents, medication management, and figuring out how to create a therapeutic connection with the kids.”

She went on to explain that “In a pediatric clinical rotation, students care for one to four patients, and it’s mostly observation work. At camp, they have the opportunity to see so much more than a traditional clinical experience. Additionally, because camp nursing is a full-time commitment for a week, students can accumulate enough hours to earn a full credit. It’s really good for these students.”

A partnership & impact that keeps growing

The program is not only beneficial to the students but also to the camp. In 2025, Camp Icaghowan had a nurse and two nursing student interns on staff for every session of summer camp, ensuring a high level of care and attention to the campers and staff.

Since 2014, Sarah has also paired nursing students with other YMCA camps. Camp St. Croix, Camp Ihduhapi, and Camp Warren now have between 5 and 12 nursing school interns each year.

For these four overnight camps, each health service volunteer must be a licensed nurse, paramedic, or certified as an emergency medical technician. They volunteer for a week at a time and serve in a fully on-call capacity, ready to go at any time of the day or night. Sarah commented, “The staff nurse is really good at making sure campers have what they need. Our goal is to listen to the parent and make sure that our care matches what they want for their child.”

Tess Benson, a nurse volunteer at Icaghowan shared, “It’s a different kind of experience than what nursing school students get in a hospital setting. This year was all about learning about ticks and leeches, as well as how to keep a camper calm to assess them quickly. Assessment skills are really important. I really enjoy working with the students and seeing them learn in a hands-on way.”

Katie Hanlon was a nursing intern in 2023 and returned to camp as a nurse in 2024 and 2025. She explained how her experience as a nursing intern “reinforced that I wanted to work in preventive and primary care,” going on to say, “Camp nursing isn’t just about medications and injuries; it’s the holistic care too. You have to be prepared for everything. Is the camper with a stomachache sick, homesick, or do they just need some quiet time? At camp, you can make a real impact.” 

Interested in volunteering as a Camp Nurse or Camp Nurse Intern?

Camp Nurse

• Must be a licensed nurse, paramedic or EMT
• In exchange for one week of volunteer time, nurses will receive one free week of traditional camp 
• Email info.icaghowan@ymcamn.org for more information or to apply for a nurse position

Camp Nurse Intern

• Contact georgia.ellingson@ymcamn.org for more information