Students learn medical simulation skills at annual UW STEM Camp at W.F. West

It’s not Paris, but the W.F. West High School commons played host to its own Olympic games on Tuesday as students from around the area tested the medical simulation skills they learned as part of the University of Washington’s annual science, math, technology and engineering (STEM) camp.

The camp, which is open to any students entering grades 9-12 in the upcoming school year, has been held at W.F. West High School for nearly a decade thanks to a partnership between the Chehalis Foundation and the University of Washington.

In total, 72 kids from districts across the region, including Centralia, Chehalis, Napavine, Rochester and Aberdeen, registered for this year’s STEM Camp.

The first two days of the four-day camp were dedicated to health care simulation training, where students got hands-on experience with medical dummies and other simulation equipment.

“We try to make it feel real, and we basically train and practice on non-patients, so it’s okay to make mistakes when we believe everybody’s trying to do their best,” said Farrah Leland, associate director of the University of Washington School of Medicine’s regional medical simulation program.

The 57 students participating in the STEM camp Monday and Tuesday rotated through 10 stations where they learned about different medical simulations, including intubating a medical dummy, performing a simulated stomach surgery, using ultrasound equipment, making slime that simulates different body tissues, applying prosthetics to mimic various injuries, and more.

At the end of the medical section of the camp Tuesday afternoon, students broke into teams and competed in a “Simulation Olympics,” where they were tasked with going back through the stations and successfully completing the simulations as quickly as possible. The top three teams received medals.

“These kids have been really receptive. It’s been super fun,” Leland said.

University of Washington brought 12 staff members of various backgrounds, including engineering, business and communications, to the medical side of the STEM camp to show students the variety of careers available in the health care field.

“If you’re interested in health care but maybe not medical school, there’s lots of other careers,” Leland said.

Providence Swedish, one of the camp’s longtime sponsors, closed out the medical side of the camp on Wednesday with demonstrations from a variety of different leaders within Providence.

“We appreciate the connection we have with the Chehalis Foundation. We feel this is important to work that gives kids exposure into STEM and what we hope is a future career within health care or caring for the community in a different way,” Providence Swedish Southwest Chief Executive Darin Goss said Tuesday.

The final two days of the four-day STEM Camp will focus on engineering, culminating in a catapult-building project.

For more information on the camp, visit https://stemchehalis.org.