TOWN OF TONAWANDA — It’s more difficult to don those iconic blue surgeons’ masks and gowns than it looks. The vast majority of people who seek medical care will have some sort of laboratory work done. And something most people probably learned as toddlers could be the most important health tip of all.

Twenty students from Health Sciences Charter School in Buffalo learned these things and more Tuesday at M.A.S.H. Camp (Medical Academy of Science and Health) at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, as they spent the morning and afternoon touring the facilities, listening to health professionals and participating in demonstrations.

Nancy Preskop, the hospital’s program coordinator, said the event wasn’t only important as a way for the students to investigate careers — it’s also essential that the hospital and other medical facilities interest young people in being the doctors, nurses and technicians of the future.

“We have to do something,” she said. “The projected shortage of workers in New York state is huge. The Baby Boomers are going to start retiring soon and we’re going to be short all those workers.”

Many of the students attending the M.A.S.H. Camp were already predisposed toward the medical field, attending a charter school with an emphasis on preparing students for future careers in the health sciences.

Sophomore Alantra McKenzie said that she’s hoping to become a gynecologist.

“I like children, and I think it’s cool,” she said. “I’d really like to work in prenatal care. I’m hoping to learn about the different careers, the different opportunities we might have.”

Students divided into two groups to take on the day’s tours and demonstrations. In the operating room, senior clinical advisor Linda Butski had one group don hair covers, shoe covers, operating gowns and masks, drawing laughter as the students fumbled with unfamiliar ties and contraptions.

Once everyone was garbed, Butski showed off and described the contents of a table full of surgical tools, including varieties of forceps, scissors, clamps and more.

“So, is everyone ready to do surgery?” she asked.

“Yes!”

“OK, come on ... here’s our patient!” Butski whisked off a sheet on the operating table to reveal ... an Operation game featuring Homer Simpson.

Everyone took a turn, but freshman Derricka Strickland showed particularly steady hands, completing several tasks before the game’s warning “beep.” The freshman said she hopes to become a nurse practitioner.

“It’s really influenced me to go for my dream job, to understand what you need to do and what you have to get through it,” she said of the school and the camp.

Dreama Cooley, a sophomore, said she hopes to become a surgeon — as does her brother Adrian Cooley, who also took part in the camp. In particular, she’s thinking about becoming a brain surgeon.

“It’s been very interesting,” she said. “I liked when they took us to the operating room and let us pretend to be surgeons.”

After the operating room experience, the group took part in activities presented by infection control coordinator Jen Carlson, who focused on the importance of safety both for workers and patients.

Carlson had the students put on gloves, then covered their hands with shaving cream and had them try to remove the gloves without getting any cream on their skin. She then dressed students Strickland and Dreama Cooley in a different set of gowns, masks and gloves focused on protecting medical personnel from infection.

“If it’s wet and sticky and it’s not yours, and you might come into contact with it ... protect yourself from it,” she said.

The most basic safety tip, though, was a very simple one. Carlson dusted the students’ hands with a powder that shows up under a black light, then had them wash their hands (15 to 20 seconds with lukewarm weather) and recheck their skin under the light — a very clear demonstration of how important thorough hand-washing is and how deceptively difficult it can be.

“The single most important way to stop the spread of infection is to wash your hands,” she said. “It’s as simple as that. I can’t stress this enough. It’s the very basis of every health care profession there is.”

The group also took a laboratory department tour with supervisor Mike Wendel, who showed them the blood bank and urgent response laboratory and more.

Now is a good time to go into the field, Wendel said, as there’s a shortage of lab technicians, a variety of jobs from drawing blood to assisting with autopsies, and an ever-growing number of lab tests prescribed for patients.

“So we’re pretty darned important,” he said.

The students also toured the physical therapy department Tuesday and heard RN mentor coordinator Daynell Rowell speak. They were given packets on medical jobs, from descriptions of all the different positions to education requirements to starting pay, Preskop said.

“That’s what’s nice about this,” she said. “It give them a chance to explore. We’re giving a lot of information about what it’s all about, from the person in environmental services all the way up to being a doctor.

“With careers, it’s not just the money, it’s want you really want to do. We’re just there to give them a piece to explore, to start thinking about it ...  ‘What do I want?’ ”