This year, 38 members of our school’s HOSA (Health Occupation Students of American) chapter have qualified for state. Junior Morgan Alder is one of these people. 

   “The HOSA competition I am doing is the Clinical Specialty event. In this event I researched a specific healthcare profession and I interviewed a healthcare professional of that profession as well as learned a specific skill related to that profession. And then I present it to a panel of judges.” Alder said

  She has spent months preparing for this event and like the rest of the state qualifiers, and she is grateful that her hard work has paid off.

  “I am really excited because I have never been able to compete at this capacity before and over something as interesting as my event,” Alder said.

  Alder chose to research the career of pediatric intensive care and learned how to place a catheter in the internal jugular by using ultrasound guided placement. 

 “I used resources such as the New England Journal of Medicine, as well as my Dad. He is a pediatric intensivist and he helped me learn technique.”

This skill is a basic skill that most medical students learn, or in Morgan’s case, as a high school student. 

“A catheter in the internal jugular provides fast medication to the entire body. It also won’t close when the patient is receiving vasoconstrictors. A catheter in the jugular is ideal when the patient is going to be in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) for an extended period” Alder said.  

  Mrs. Jami Janson, our HOSA chapter sponsor, has dedicated a lot of her time to helping plan and prepare competitions and serves as a mentor for students. She is thrilled that so many people have made it to state. 

   “I am super happy! I think this is the most people ever in our school and in the area going to state.” Mrs. Janson said

   Alder is the only Clinical Specialty project that made it to state in our school’s chapter. 

   “Alders’s project is really intense and she has put so much time into it. She has learned a skill you don’t learn until med school. I think she is going to do well.” Janson said

  The HOSA state leadership conference takes place at the end of March and Alder will be traveling to Rolla, Missouri to compete and hopefully carry on to represent our school nationally.