Are you a middle school student who is greatly interested in the medical field? Or perhaps, are you a highschool freshman, desperately wanting to explore the various extracurriculars your school has to offer? A student seeking opportunities to grow and develop your soft skills, meet new individuals and try something new? If so, the HOSA club aligns well with these needs, enabling you to gain valuable knowledge and build a variety of skills, ranging from interpersonal to subject-specific ones.
What is HOSA
Before we get started, let us briefly examine the CTSO. The Career and Technical Student Organization (CTSO) are vocational organizations mainly situated in highschools, colleges and career technology centers that enhance students' learning through leadership, personal development, real world application, etc. There are numerous examples of CTSOs, including DECA, FBLA and Business Professionals of America. HOSA, officially known as HOSA-future health professional, is the CTSO that is solely dedicated to preparing students for careers in healthcare. Its mission is to empower members “to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration and experience.”
HOSA Events
One of the main aspects of HOSA is the competitive events that each chapter member’s daily activities revolve around. HOSA contains various events ranging from health science to teamwork events (not all events are available for certain age groups). Students compete in these events at the regional level, and then at the international level. Listed below are the various events HOSA has to offer:
Health Science Events
Behavioural health
Dental Terminology
Human Growth and Development
Medical Law and Ethics
Medical Math
Medical Spelling
Medical Terminology
Nutrition
Pathophysiology
Leadership Events
Researched Persuasive speaking
Health Profession Events
Biomedical Laboratory Science
Clinical Nursing
Clinical Specialty
Dental Science
Pharmacy Science
Physical Therapy
Sports Medicine
Veterinary Science
Emergency Preparedness Events
CERT Skills
CPR/First Aid Skills
Emergency Medical Technician
Epidemiology
Public Health
Teamwork Events
Biomedical Debate
Community Awareness
Creative Problem Solving
Forensic Science
HOSA Bowl
Medical Innovation.
Who Can Join HOSA?
HOSA has three levels of membership called “divisions.”
Middle School Division
Secondary Division
Postsecondary/Collegiate Division
To be a member of HOSA, you must first be a member in one of the divisions listed above. In this case, you would be categorized under the secondary division as you are enrolling in this extracurricular in secondary school. Next, you must be in a health science program (for those in postsecondary), OR plan to pursue a career in healthcare. Therefore, students who are greatly interested in the medical field, or are seeking opportunities to explore this field of study, are more than welcomed to join!
Conferences
HOSA has 3 conferences, the FLC (Fall Leadership Conference), SLC (Spring Leadership Conference) and ILC, (International Leadership Conference). During these conferences, you are required to do examinations that contain a written component and/or a procedural component (based on your event). For instance, the behavioural health event only requires a written exam, whereas CPR/First Aid requires a written exam as well as a practical test. The FLC is viewed as more of a “practice” exam, as student’s FLC results will not prevent them from participating in SLC. From their FLC results, students will have the opportunity to see where they rank among their peers, and also to change their event if they do not like it after the conference. After FLC, there is the Spring Leadership Conference, where students do a written component or both procedural and written components based on their event (very similar to FLC). However, top 10 finalists for SLC will receive a certificate, while top 3 are qualified to attend the International Leadership Conference. The ILC is held annually in June, and is the highlight of the year for HOSA members. It has various purposes listed below:
Providing members with various educational and social activities at a national level
Providing members with the opportunity to share common experiences such as leadership development.
Provide information about current healthcare issues in health occupations
Provide the opportunity to recognize and participate in leadership and skill development through competitive learning activities.
How Does HOSA Benefit You?
Being involved in HOSA, members are able to build and expand their interpersonal skills such as collaboration and communication skills, which will greatly benefit them in the long run. In addition to this, students are able to build leadership skills and qualities by developing character, and take on these leadership roles at the local, provincial or the national level. Along with soft skills, HOSA greatly helps students develop and enhance various hands-on healthcare skills through the competitive events.
My Personal Experience with HOSA
As a high school student who aspires to pursue a career in the medical field, this extracurricular will be extremely helpful for the future. Throughout my experience with HOSA, I found that it not only provides insights into various healthcare career paths, but also helps students build various soft skills, such as communication and team work skills through its numerous events. Following my acceptance into this club, I also set future goals for myself (which I recommend future members to do as well), to be a well rounded chapter member of HOSA.
I aspire to be a pediatrician, which means that excellent communication skills are required in order to effectively communicate with the family/caregivers as well as the patient, despite their age. Therefore, through my HOSA experience, I set a goal to build my communication skills and also gain essential knowledge about healthcare and biology. I am aiming to become a HOSA training coordinator in grade 11 so that I can not only further build my communication skills when teaching the future chapter members, but also enhance my existing knowledge and healthcare skills. Given below were some of the goals and tips I used (and recommend you to use) to be an effective chapter member.
My Goals:
Time management skills
Knowing that I also had various other subjects and extracurriculars to focus on (school subjects, music class, personal project), I managed my time in order to be on track and make time for HOSA. I started a new schedule, fixing a specific time for all my tasks and got specific work done in that particular time.
Be on track
Just like any other classes I had, I viewed this extracurricular as another course, and made sure that I am on track with my work and lessons. I made sure that I knew what I was doing (asking questions when in doubt), paid attention in class and effectively studied for HOSA exams. This way, I gained the essential healthcare knowledge needed.
Class participation
By participating frequently in class, I publicly spoke to the class, voicing my own opinions and expressing my ideas on a particular topic. This was a great way to start off and gradually build my communication skills.
Partner work
Since my event also incorporated partner work, I used this as an opportunity to collaborate with new students and build my communication skills to effectively contribute and accomplish a given task.
Predominantly, HOSA is a highly recommended extracurricular as it provides a multitude of opportunities for middle school, high school and post secondary students to develop interpersonal skills, leadership qualities and healthcare skills. Through its competitive events programs, one has the opportunity to enhance their healthcare abilities from the various hands-on activities and can overall benefit aspiring healthcare students in the long run.
- By Janusha Chandranathan
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