Volunteer doctors and nurses from Ireland, Spain, England, and many other countries join the Head of Nursing and Senior Nurse for all summer sessions, the Brothers and Sisters Camp in spring and the Sibling Camp in the autumn.
The Barretstown’s medical centre, the ``Med Shed,`` is under the direction of the Nursing Director, Senior Nurse and Medical Director.
The sessions are staffed with two doctors and four to six nurses. The number of volunteer nurses per session may change; this depends on the level of care required by the campers during a particular session. Volunteer doctors must be licensed with the Irish Medical Council and nurses with An Bord Altranais (The Irish Nursing Board).
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Training for medical volunteers will take place once you are on site. The commitment as a volunteer nurse or doctor is 8 or 9 days during the summer, and 4 days for the spring and autumn camps. Volunteering at camp is residential and you must commit to the full session. Food, accommodation and transportation to and from the airport are provided. Our camp calendar outlines all of our camps for the year and the commitment required. You can view our camp calendar by clicking the button below.
Camp Calendar 📅
The Barretstown medical centre is known as the “Med Shed” and is housed in a wonderful remodeled old stone building across the courtyard from the dining room.
It is designed to be a sheltering, friendly environment to provide care for minor injuries, general paediatric problems, and administer oral medications including oral chemotherapy, IV push chemotherapy, and factor infusions. Transfusions are not routinely given, nor are multi-agent IV chemotherapy.
The Med-Shed has a large reception room, this leads through a wheel chair accessible ramp to the nurse’s station overlooking the Secret Garden.
The nurse’s station houses the medical records and leads to the four patient exam-rooms, five sleeping rooms, bathrooms and pharmacy.
The Med Shed’s policies are designed to support the campers so that they can participate in camp activities to the maximum extent, thereby deriving the greatest benefit from their camp experience. The camper’s care includes the treatment of injuries and minor illness, as well as treatment of the camper’s acute and chronic illnesses such as administration of chemotherapy, haemophilia factor, inhalation therapy and oral medications.
However, there will be some information that the staff should be aware of when caring for certain campers.
Alert lists are compiled at the beginning of each session and they contain information relating to the camper’s physical and emotional needs, limitations, allergies, likes and dislikes and any special needs while at camp.
Medical alert lists are organized into cottage and activity groups, these lists will also contain information on when a camper needs to attend the Med Shed.
The lists are returned to the Med Shed after every session and are shredded.
The Barretstown’s medical centre, the “Med Shed”, is under the direction of the Nursing Director, Senior Nurse and Medical Director. Volunteer doctors and nurses from Spain, England, Hungary and many other countries join the Nursing Director and Senior Nurse for each session during the summer.
Please get in touch with the team here at Barretstown and we will try and answer any questions you may have. You can contact Barretstown by calling 045 864115 or by emailing us on the below link.
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