DeKALB Nicole Dispensa is heading toward a job in health care, but she believes her hometown of Stillman Valley lacks the resources to learn more about that career path.

Dispensa, 17, wants to pursue a career in clinical lab sciences. In a town with a population of about 1,100 people, its not easy to come by people in that profession.

Its hard to find people to shadow, at least for what I want to do, she said.

Dispensa is among 42 high school students from rural areas in 19 northern Illinois counties participating this week in the eighth Rural Health Careers Camp. The camps goal is to address the need for more health care providers in rural areas, said Vicki Weidenbacher-Hoper, coordinator for the National Center for Rural Health Professions in Rockford.

The camp includes CPR training, games such as Disease Detective, hands-on labs and talks with health care professionals.

Students also will compete in a race that includes a bedpan relay and laboratory matching game.

The three-day camp started Wednesday at Northern Illinois University. The camp is a partnership among NIUs School of Nursing and Health Studies, National Center for Rural Health Professions and the Northwestern Illinois Area Health Education Center.

Weidenbacher-Hoper said students from rural Illinois are more likely to return to areas near their hometowns to practice medicine.

In rural Illinois, theres a shortage of health professionals across the board, she said. We use the grow your own model. We want to invest in what we have in rural Illinois.

Matt Hunsaker, director of the rural medicine education program at the University of Illinois in Rockford, said students in rural areas typically have a harder time finding information about health care fields than students in urban areas.

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Camp addresses shortage in rural health providers