Equipped with medications, water and a first-aid kit, Michele Prater, RN, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, drives a golf cart to see her next patient. It isn't the latest way for the pediatric pulmonary nurse to make rounds at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas. For one week every summer, Prater is a camp nurse at an asthma camp, and the golf cart is a practical way to care for 20 children spread across 125 country acres.

Prater's is just one of many camps for children with a variety of illnesses, their siblings and families at the Peaceable Kingdom Retreat for Children. The retreats are staffed by hospitals such as Scott & White and hosted by Peaceable Kingdom, a nonprofit organization established by Daurice and Jim Bowmer on their Texas ranch.

All camps are free of charge, one of the Bowmers' stipulations (the organization raises funds year-round to support the camp).

The concept was to create a place where children could have a good time and forget about being sick, Peaceable Kingdom director Scott Fineske said. The founders wanted Peaceable Kingdom to look like a home away from home, and it does, only better.

Limestone buildings, log-cabin bunkhouses, a playscape and pool, campfire grounds, a movie theater, nature trails and a famous Lampasas River fishing hole are placed so that one facility is rarely visible from another.

"It's a very incredible place for the kids," Prater said. "It is an escape from reality. There are kids who come out here who have never even seen a horse, who don't have access to any other opportunity like this."

The benefit to children is clear to the nurses involved with the camps. "The kids get to see other children who have the same type of problems they have," Prater said. "It gives them someone to bond with, someone who has had the same experience."

In addition, it gives the medical staff the opportunity to provide some education-for example, to check a youngster's technique with an inhaler.

That education extends to the family, too. Parents get to know other parents in similar situations, said Jan Upchurch, director of Scott & White's Child Life program.

"Support and education come more naturally in this kind of setting," Upchurch said.

"The parents learn from each other and staff learns from them, too. Nurses see how the parents deal with the illness and how they integrate it into the family, with both the ill child and siblings."

For that reason, some camps include families. "We realized that the siblings of these children need attention, too," she said.

A family affair

Siblings are included in a weeklong day camp for children with diabetes, organized by Children's Hospital of Austin. They participate in activities such as pony rides, movies, swimming and rope courses, as well as in medical education sessions. Siblings also are encouraged to test their own blood sugar with their brothers or sisters.

"It gives them a clearer perspective on the testing and shots and all the anxiety," said Elizabeth Williams, RN, a certified diabetes educator who organizes the sessions. "Diabetes has an effect on the whole family.

"Camp is also a great place for parents to meet other parents who have to deal with this." Williams, a former neonatal ICU nurse, attended the camp when her son was diagnosed with diabetes at age 7. "For the first time, I met other people who had to deal with a young child with this disease. It was an eye-opener to see these parents relax a bit and let their kids just be kids."

She is now a certified diabetes nurse educator with the specialty care center at Children's Hospital.

A common family issue, Williams said, is jealousy. Brothers and sisters see the extra attention given to their chronically ill sibling, and family schedules and plans seem to revolve around that child. Nurses address this issue at daily parent conferences during camp, and often learn new things about dealing with it, too.

Jan Tyroch, RN, a clinical nurse specialist in Scott & White's neurology department, has been involved with camps at Peaceable Kingdom since it began nearly 20 years ago.

She recalls that early neurology camps included siblings, but said that now there are so many patients that there simply isn't room. So, at the weeklong camp for pediatric neurology patients, families are invited to join campers for the last day.

Nurses who have participated in the camps say they look at their patients a little differently afterward. "You have more insight with the children, get to know them a bit better," Prater said. "You see if they are really doing their medications. It's a chance to do some one-on-one with a child."

"Camp helps nurses see children with chronic illnesses in a personal way," Williams said. Nurses who participate in the diabetes camp also learn at lot about the disease.

"You find out so much more about the kids at camp," Tyroch said. "You establish a good rapport with the kids and their families, and they are so much easier to treat after that. As a nurse, the neatest thing is seeing them out of the medical environment."

Nurses receive other benefits from the camp experience, too.

"Everybody needs a break from the routine, and this is a nice one," Prater said. "It challenges you to be organized in a different way, to make do with what you have. It is a great change of pace."

"This is camp-the shorts, the sunscreen, the ice cream, the fun stuff," Williams said. "I know the nurses enjoy it, because they come back every year."

Nurses volunteer to attend the Children's Hospital diabetes camp and are not paid, although they do receive CEUs.

The biggest challenge for nurses at the overnight camps is the lack of rest. It is round-the-clock duty.

But nurses said it is worth it to be around the children.

"Seeing them have new experiences, especially those who get no other opportunity to go to camp, that is the best," Prater said.

Contact Melissa Gaskill at gaskill@dbcity.com.