UW-Eau Claire’s new Biomedical Exploration Camp to inspire future healthcare, engineering students

Twenty students each week will participate in the clinical care track, which will offer clinical decision-making and hands-on skills opportunities through injury evaluation, cardiopulmonary testing, casting and taping labs, radiograph interpretation, vital sign assessment, and full-scale health scenario simulations. Students will participate in two case studies designed to mirror real-world clinical encounters through the perspectives of athletic training, exercise physiology, nursing and other healthcare areas.

The remaining 36 students in the biomedical engineering track will utilize hands-on experiences that blend science, technology and creativity. Students will learn about designing robotic exoskeletons and medical devices, 3D-printing patient-specific hearts, drug delivery systems, lung physiology and cutting-edge biomaterials.

Learn more about each track here.

“This camp is a unique opportunity for students to connect with our impressive faculty, build leadership skills and gain real-world insight into careers in healthcare, medicine and engineering,” says Dr. Carmen Manning, special assistant to the chancellor for healthcare education and dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences. “This is the latest example of UW-Eau Claire’s commitment to help students discover their passions and to serve the needs of the community.”

The idea for the camp came from faculty and staff attending The Congress of Future Medical Leaders program in Boston, Massachusetts, which directly connects students interested in a career in healthcare to opportunities at UW-Eau Claire.

Students at that event were interested in involvement with UW-Eau Claire prior to beginning college, so faculty and staff spent the last year working with campus leaders to create a summer academic camp opportunity for high schoolers from across the country.

“The camp is a great way to get students interested in engineering or in clinical healthcare to see and do some of the work these professionals do,” says Dr. Doug Dunham, interim director of strategic partnerships and program development. “There’s lots of diversity, you get to see all these different opportunities and you get to work closely with multiple faculty members.”

Dr. Rachel Kleis, assistant professor of kinesiology and master of science in athletic training clinical education coordinator, is excited to return to her “roots” as an athletic trainer for high school students through the camp. She says the clinical case studies were crafted to be hands-on and involve each of the university’s specialties so attendees can experience careers in nursing, athletic training, exercise physiology and other healthcare areas.

“I want the students to be exposed to career paths they may not have considered pursuing before,” Kleis says. “I’m also excited for students to see how healthcare and wellness professionals can work together in a variety of ways to help patients and clients.”

Dr. Aswin Sundarakrishnan and Dr. Joseph Petefish, both assistant professors in the biomedical engineering field, believe highlighting several subdisciplines will excite students to find specific passions.

“People have different talents and interests,” Petefish says, “and our students have several avenues to find their ‘sweet spot’ and work on different aspects of problems to improve life.”

“Almost two decades back, I first learned that entire organs could be engineered in the laboratory, and I was fascinated and hooked to the topic,” Sundarakrishnan says. “It drove me to pursue a career in biomedical engineering, specifically tissue engineering, and I am here to pay it forward.”

Dr. Meg Lagunas, associate professor of nursing and the director of the Clinical Learning Center, says she is excited to be more flexible and creative with topics and activities. She intends to give campers the opportunity to learn and practice nursing skills such as injections, phlebotomy, wound care and childbirth.

The camp will advance UW-Eau Claire’s mission to be a national leader in healthcare education. As part of its strategic plan, Vision 2030, the university is expanding its healthcare education network through multiple partnerships and by providing high-impact opportunities to students who will be tomorrow’s healthcare leaders.

Camp attendees could someday join the Biomedical Innovator Scholars program, which has served as a high-impact pathway for future professionals through research and job shadowing opportunities. All Blugolds can utilize the William J. and Marian A. Klish Health Careers Center to explore and prepare for admission into health professional programs.

UW-Eau Claire has served community healthcare populations through expanded academic programs and clinical experiences, highlighted by the successes of new master of science programs in exercise physiology and in public health, and by repeated top-100 national rankings for the speech-language pathology graduate program.

Once classroom experiences end each day, camp attendees will explore campus and the Eau Claire community, says Kyrielle Peterson Trujillo, Towers South residence hall director and program director for the camp. Scheduled activities include completing the low ropes course with the Environmental Adventure Center, listening to music in Phoenix Park, enjoying s’mores and stargazing.

A former camp counselor, Trujillo says it was rewarding to design an agenda for 40 students each week while also collaborating with a range of faculty on campus.

“Everyone was just really excited to be able to offer the camp,” Trujillo says of working with camp organizers. “I’m just really excited to see the students get to know each other and build those relationships and see my camp staff be part of that, too, because that’s really fun and rewarding.”