Haunted Hospital focuses on spirit of learning, collaboration, teamwork

The Campbell University healthcare community came together for a day of learning designed to promote teamwork and collaboration.

But in a sort of scary, creepy sort of way.

The Haunted Hospital at the Creek, held Oct. 14 in Smith Hall, brought together students in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine for one of the university's Interprofessional Case Study learning activities, which are offered several times each year.

Representing the Nursing, Physician Assistant, Public Health, Pharmacy, Osteopathic Medicine and Physical Therapy programs, students split into groups and throughout the day traversed six learning stations, all under the theme Osteopathic Bone Yard Cemetery. Each group represented a mixture of the healthcare disciplines; students, staff and faculty decorated the Halloween-themed rooms, and many showed up in costume.

Dr. Wendy Wood is director of Objective Structured Clinical Examination Education and Assessment. Also a medical school IPE (Interprofessional Education) liaison, Wood is integral in organizing and promoting the event, now in its second year.

The themes for the room this year are different from a year ago, but advancing IPE is the goal.

"The whole object of this is to get the different professions to work together, to see how the puzzle pieces come together, to solve a healthcare condition a patient may have."

One themed room, for example, focused on identifying and treating snake bites. A chilling experience, for myriad reasons.

"It was something we hadn't learned about yet, so it was exciting to learn how to apply that," said Elizabeth Shingleton, a second-year medical school student from Raleigh.

Kathleen Jones, a pediatric trauma registered nurse and simulation coordinator in the School of Nursing, was unrecognizable in costume, which, not ironically, was that of a snake. She talked about teaching students ways to identify the origin of the bite, whether from a pit viper or coral snake, for instance, and the treatments and interventions for each, while also debunking some common myths.

The students learned about differentiating neurotoxic from hemotoxic venom, which can target different systems of the body. About treatment options. What to do, and what not to do, when treating a victim of a snake bite.

Collectively, the day was about teaching students that no one lives in a silo, said Dr. Lori Langdon, clinic chair of Pediatrics and director of the university Health Center.

"We all practice medicine based on all of the strengths and skills and contributions of all the colleagues and the other schools."

Langdon, who helped facilitate the sessions, talked about a session in which students tried to unravel the mystery of the skeleton "Frank," who, in this scenario, was a 72-year-old man who lay dead.

"Frank" was a former smoker whose parents died of heart disease. He had two falls within the past month and high blood pressure, for which he took medication. Doctors increased his dosage and, turns out, Frank developed orthostatic hypotension and, because he had steps in his home, probably fell, broke his femur and died of blood loss.


Maren Parnell, a first-year student in the Physician Assistant program, had just finished the morning sessions. She liked the idea of working in groups with students from other professions, learning their backgrounds and their approaches to care.

"Especially … PT students, because they do things so differently from us, so it's really cool to hear how they think about a case," said Parnell of Greensboro.

Bria Thomas of Raeford, also a first-year PA student, was waiting to enter her first room in the Haunted Hospital.

"It's nice to get outside of our own classroom and interact with the other programs," she said. "It gives everyone an opportunity to learn from everybody else."

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