All About HOSA: Future Health Professionals

This post was written by guest contributor, Gabrielle Smith, a current SD Mines student that is part of the team of students working to start a HOSA chapter here at SD Mines.

HOSA participants learn about
medical imaging during
the annual conference.

Whether you are interested in public health, working as a clinician, laboratory science, or biomedical engineering, HOSA may be for you.  HOSA: Future Health Professionals is an international organization for middle school, high school, post-secondary, and college students interested in healthcare fields.  HOSA provides students with opportunities for competition, scholarships, and volunteering.  It is also currently the largest organization in the world for students planning on going into healthcare and healthcare-related fields.  With over 60 competitive events and multiple recognition events, there are a wide variety of options to choose from.

Students compete and attend symposia at annual conferences at the state and international level.  These conferences also provide valuable opportunities to network.  At the state conference, I’ve been able to go to sessions on pediatrics, being an obstetrician/gynecologist, suturing, family medicine, and emergency medical services.

Internationals take place every year in late June.  Over 11,500 attendees from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China at the most recent conference in Orlando, Florida.

View from the recent HOSA conference in Orlando, FL.

For the past four years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to attend the International Leadership Conference.  At the most recent international conference, I was able to attend a presentation on the role of augmented intelligence in healthcare, a lecture on medicine in space, and a round table about the future of healthcare.  There were also sessions on palliative care, emergency preparedness, pediatrics, suturing, and designing prosthetics, among others.  Some of the speakers and representatives included people from Microsoft (including several mechanical engineers and a bioengineering researcher), IBM Watson Health, the US Surgeon General, a former senior medical advisor at NASA, HHS and the White House, and a branch chief from the US Department of Health and Human Services.  At other conferences, I’ve been able to get certified in mass bleeding control and attend sessions on emergency medicine, human trafficking, and post-traumatic stress disorder in emergency medical services.

Opening slide from a presentation given
during the International Leadership Conference.

During my time in HOSA, I’ve been able to compete in epidemiology, behavioral health, pathophysiology, and healthcare issues.  While all of those were based on written exams, there are plenty of other types of events.  In my previous chapter at my high school, students have competed at the international competition in events such as CPR/First Aid, EMT, Health Career Photography, and Forensic Science.  Some competitive events involve demonstrating clinical skills, while others involve demonstrating various labs.  Still others involve poster presentations in areas like biomedical engineering.

HOSA has been extremely valuable to me.  When I joined, I wasn’t entirely sure about what I was getting myself into, but I’m incredibly grateful that I did.  HOSA has provided me with opportunities to meet other students from around the world and given me the chance to further my knowledge in a variety of areas in healthcare.

If you’d like to learn more, or get involved with HOSA, please email me at Gabrielle.Smith@mines.sdsmt.edu or Hope Dosch at Hope.Dosch@mines.sdsmt.edu

You can read more about HOSA here in South Dakota
by checking out their website: https://sdhosa.org/