Students and faculty from the RT program at California College in San Diego, CA, converged on the Hilton Anaheim last week to share great information about the profession of respiratory care at the National Leadership Conference of the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA).
Dr. Henry Oh (second from right) and his crew from California College represented the profession well.HOSA is a national organization representing high school students who are interested in pursuing a health care career, and the annual Leadership Conference is attended by those students plus high school counselors and other school staff who come to learn more about what the health professions have to offer.
Social media spreads the word
“Our AARC brochures were almost depleted because many so students came to the AARC booth,” says California College Associate Dean and Director of Respiratory Therapy Henry Oh, MT, RRT-NPS, CBiol. One group that came by was so impressed, in fact, that they ended up using social media to spread the word to their fellow students.
“On the first day, a group of students recorded the pig lung and the transport ventilator demonstration showing the inflation and deflation of the lungs,” explains the educator. “They posted it on Instagram, and many other students saw it and came in big groups to our booth the next day.”
Pig lungs were a hit on Instagram and students flocked to the AARC at HOSA booth.Overall, the booth featured four stations on two separate tables: intubation, neonatal breath sounds, chest percussion/vibration, and the pig lung and ventilator set-up. Students lined up to take their turn at the intubation station, and the pig lung/vent set up continued to be a big hit. As the buzz made its way throughout the exhibit area, the cameraman taking videos of the event came by and filmed the demonstration as well and posted it on the event website, drawing even more people to the booth.
“As soon as the exhibit hall opened at 9 a.m., our booth was one of those that students went to first,” says Dr. Oh.
Good teacher
Dr. Oh says he is very proud of his students, Michael Parlacoski, Jr., and Daniel Ertel, who volunteered their time to staff the booth, noting they did an especially great job teaching the high schoolers how to intubate the manikin. “They helped around 200 students perform adult intubation on the manikin, and an estimated 40–50% got the tube placement right on their first attempt.”
Fourteen senior year medical students visited the booth as well, giving Dr. Oh and his students the chance to educate them about the profession as well.
There has been a presence of AARC at HOSA for over a decade.
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