California, Here They Come

AREA STUDENTS QUALIFY FOR NATIONAL COMPETITION

FARMINGTON — Two area high school graduates, one from Farmington and another from Lincoln, head to Anaheim, Calif., this week to compete in a national nurse assisting contest, as part of the national conference for HOSA-Future Health Professionals.

In addition to their high school courses, Kaylan McEntire, of Farmington, and Anapaola Correa, of Lincoln, enrolled in the medical professions education program at Northwest Technical Institute this past year.

They each spent one-half of their day in high school and the other half with NTI, taking seven courses with instructor Ellen Tidwell of NTI’s Secondary Career Center. NTI uses one classroom on the Farmington High campus for its program.

Both students competed at the Arkansas State HOSA Leadership Conference in the spring, first participating in a written exam to show knowledge they’ve learned from their classes and then advancing to the skills portion of the competition to demonstrate precautions and skills required for a specific nurse assisting scenario.

McEntire came in first place for the nurse assisting contest and Correa finished in third place. The top three advanced to the National HOSA competition June 24-28. HOSA-Future Health Professionals is an organization to help students prepare to meet the needs of the healthcare community.

At the national level, the students will face the same situation. They first must score high enough on the written test to be able to qualify for round two, an actual skills event. Besides nurse assisting, 50 other competitive events will be held at the national conference. Some of these include biomedical debate, life support skills, physical therapy, prepared speaking and public health.

The knowledge portion of the competition is comprehensive, Tidwell said. Students have to be familiar with 12 areas of study from their classes, such as communication, anatomy and physiology, nutrition, vital signs, nursing assistant skills, infection control and ethical and legal responsibilities.

In the skills portion at the state level, students went behind closed doors with three judges to demonstrate nurse assisting skills required in a real case. Using a mannequin, each student had to demonstrate

how to change a patient’s gown that was soiled. The patient also had an injury on one arm that had been bandaged.

“There’s a lot of little things you have to remember,” Tidwell said.

The judge’s score sheet for changing a patient’s gown shows 23 steps that have to be taken. For example, nurse assistants greet and identify the patient, identify themselves, wear gloves and have to remove a soiled gown a certain way. Assistants talk to a mannequin, just like they would be talking and explaining everything to a real person.

It’s harder with a mannequin, Tidwell said, because a real patient might be able to help the nurse assistant in some ways. She said it’s possible the students will have a real person at the national competition.

The students have practiced on the different scenarios that can be used in competition.

“The goal with practicing is that it just becomes a habit,” McEntire said. “For a while, it was very robotic.”

The one- year medical professions education program starts with four weeks of introduction to medical professions. Throughout the year, students study medical terminology, human anatomy and physiology, medical procedures, abnormal psychology and human behavior and disorders.

McEntire said she knew she was interested in a career in the medical field. She had a serious surgery when she was younger and had a great experience with her nurses. The NTI classes helped to confirm her career choice and also helped her realize she could go further in a career.

“I wanted to make sure that this is what I wanted to do,” McEntire said.

Correa also knew she wanted to go into the medical field based on past experiences with her family. She is planning to continue at NTI to become a certified nursing assistant and a licensed practical nurse and then transfer to NorthWest Arkansas Community College for its nursing program.