The Jupiter High Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) competed at regionals on Jan. 27, taking home the first place title in varying categories.
Erich Lachinski, senior Vice President of the Treasure Coast HOSA region and four year HOSA member, competed in the patient care technology category, placing first.
“I had to draw blood from a mannequin arm, reminiscing on the previous skills I had learned from the medical academy,” Lachinski said. “This was essentially what I was judged on as there were various judges in the room.”
HOSA is a nationwide organization that aims to promote career opportunities in the healthcare industry, while encouraging students to pursue healthcare professions.
As vice president of the Treasure Coast HOSA region, Lachinski hosted the regional competition.
“I was in charge of actually setting up the entirety of the regional competition, hosting over 500 members from around our county,” Lachinski said.
At the HOSA regional competition, members fundraised by selling various HOSA items.
“As a regional officer as well, I hosted games, made various speeches to welcome the HOSA community, sold regional HOSA tee shirts and pins and hosted giveaways,” Lachinski said.
Isabella Sodomin, senior and three year HOSA member, competed the last two years in varying categories. This year, Sodomin competed in the Job Seeking Skills category and won first overall.
“I placed first place in my HOSA competition, which was labeled Job Seeking Skills. My freshman year, I placed first place, but it was in Health Lifestyles,” Sodomin said.
Prior to this year, Sodomin was unable to compete in her junior year after not passing the individual series of events and competitions at districts needed to qualify for regionals.
“Last year I actually didn’t end up getting to compete because I didn’t pass my round one test, and last year I did a competition called pathophysiology. I went into the event a little bit over my head thinking that I could easily pass it, but I didn’t put in the work last year,” Sodomin said.
Amongst these categories is HOSA-Bowl, a part of the HOSA regionals. HOSA-Bowl brings together high school students to showcase their knowledge and skills in different healthcare fields. As a key event in the HOSA organization, the competition emphasizes the importance of teamwork, critical thinking and real life healthcare applications.
This competition consists of two rounds, each team competing with four members each. The first round is a writing test, with the top members advancing to the second round, which is a buzzer-style test.
“HOSA-Bowl is a competition with four people in each group and you test to find out who you compete against. Then it’s buzzer competitions, like family feud, testing medical knowledge. We competed one versus one from each team and in the last two minutes we could talk with teammates before answering,” Haruka Harada, sophomore competitor, said.
In preparation for the HOSA regionals and HOSA-bowl, members prepared in advance, including preparing in parliamentary procedure. The parliamentary processes include how to build leadership roles and run business meetings for medical processes.
“We had to study a lot of medical terms and parliamentary processes,” Harada said.
Outside of competitions, HOSA is a community for those with similar interests in medical topics.
The team’s success at regionals will send 45 JHS HOSA members to the State Leadership Conference, where they will compete against the highest ranked from across the state.
“My favorite part about HOSA and going to competitions is honestly the community of people. Everyone is like-minded in the way they want to win and succeed not only in their competition but in their life,” Lachinski said. “As a senior, I had been having conversations with many HOSA members about college and it was refreshing to see so many dedicated individuals with bright futures.”
