The Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) student organization traveled to the Charlotte Convention Center late afternoon Mar. 6 to represent Northwood in the statewide competition. The competition lasted until Mar. 9 and members competed in a variety of events that were related to occupations in the medical field.
“I competed in the CPR and first aid event,” sophomore Amber Haley said. “We took a test during regionals and made it to states and once you make it you have to take the test again to move on to the second stage. The second stage consists of the actual simulation where they have dummies laid out and they give you a scenario and you then have to perform the steps of CPR and first aid.”
Even though Haley and her partner Brooke Beal did not place in this event, Beal felt that the experience was still worthwhile.
“The competition was really fun and I would say that it was one of the best experiences a club has given me in high school,” Beal said. “I was able to increase my knowledge of first aid and CPR, which is a good skill to know in case of an emergency.”
When the students were not in the heat of competition, they spent time familiarizing themselves with the area and attending educational seminars.
“In our free time we would go out to eat a lot because we were responsible for feeding ourselves,” sophomore Annika Tracy said. “There was this really cool epicenter that we would go to with lots of good restaurants. There was also a lot of expos and seminars that you could attend and they gave you a really good education on different types of medical care.”
One seminar many students attended was called “Stop the Bleed.”
“During the ‘Stop the Bleed’ seminar, they basically educated everybody in the room about how to stop major bleeding using ternikits, packing and pressure,” Haley said. “It was really cool to be able to work with one of the mannequins that actually bleed as it simulated a real life emergency.”
Tracy was one of the few students who placed in their event and she details the work she put in to prepare for the competition.
“I competed in the prepared speaking event,” Tracy said. “To prepare I mostly just spent time reciting it in front of other people because the more I did it, the more familiar I was with it and I recited it so much that I basically memorized it.”
Tracy hopes that more HOSA members will get involved with the yearly competitions and she encourages other students to join the organization.
“I think everyone in HOSA should be competing because you’re not really getting the full experience of being in the club unless you really immerse yourself into these competitions,” Tracy said. “If you are interested in a healthcare career, you should definitely be in HOSA because it is a great way to learn more about what types of professions there are in the medical field.”
-Madeline Conte
