Harrisburg Diabetic Youth Camp: Medical Care

The medical staffs for our programs consist of a pediatric endocrinologist and a variety of other doctors, nurses with diabetes experience, certified diabetes educators, and other veteran medical staff. Each child and teen is assigned a medical team of a physician, nurse / CDE / pump trainer, and dietary specialist. The medical team is on-site 24 hours each day and participates in camper activities.

Four blood glucose-monitoring periods are built into the daily schedule. Each tent unit / cabin has a doctor who reviews each child’s blood glucose level and discusses insulin doses with each child. The staff supervises each insulin dose and pump bolus. Although we encourage self-injection, campers are not required to give their own insulin injections. And we can assure parents that every child quickly wants to give self-insulin-injections when he/she sees the other campers giving insulin injections.

Camp is not home! Food and activity can be very different and so can the blood sugars. During camp, we cannot promise perfect blood sugars, but we can promise to minimize the risk of low blood sugars and treat them promptly if they occur. No child is ever out of sight of someone who can recognize and treat a low blood sugar. Meters and carbohydrates are available at every activity, and medical staff is available at all times. Each night we check children who were low at bedtime or who have a history of nighttime lows.

Many of our campers follow insulin pump therapy. We have certified pump trainers from all major pump companies on staff and our physicians are trained in adjusting basal rates and meal boluses

Will a camper learn more about diabetes? This is a camp, not a hospital education program, but the answer is YES! When possible, the “teachable moment” is used to help each child move toward more independence and better diabetes care. We also know that the best teaching and learning occurs as the younger campers see the older campers taking care of themselves.