HOSA in the Classroom
Why HOSA in the Classroom?
HOSA is an integral part of the Health
Occupations Education program and
provides an enhancement to the
objectives taught in the classroom.
The value of HOSA competitive events
program is two-fold.
First
Teachers can use the program as a
motivational and recognition tool by
encouraging students to participate in
local, district, state and national CE.
The opportunity to compete against other
students from rival school and states can
be motivating for many students.
In order to be successful in CE, most
students must spend hours upon hours
outside the classroom – studying,
practicing and learning.
This extra work translates into future
academic and career success!
Second
Teachers can also use the competitive
events program tools to enhance
classroom instruction.
Why does HOSA Sponsor
a National Competitive Events
Program?
HOSA’s origins are in the curriculum When HOSA was created as an integral part of the
curriculum, it was designed to support and reinforce
classroom learning outcomes – not the other way
around.
HOSA’s purpose is learning - What HOSA does is
motivate students to learn. HOSA conferences, events,
and partnerships all motivate Health Science
Technology Education students to do more than would
be reasonable within the classroom walls.
HOSA's learning value reaches program content and
beyond.
HOSA members learn HOE goals and competencies,
and they learn them well. They also learn about
leadership, responsibility, teamwork, communication,
and other “real world” skills.
Competitive Events as a
powerful instructional tool.
When you focus on the purpose of the
competitive events program, you focus on
achieving HOE goals. The goals are
achieved through the process – not the
reward!
What are the REAL goals?
Learning
Fun (relationships)
Self-respect and personal satisfaction
These goals are achieved when students
take part in the competitive events
program. They are not dependent on
“winning” but rather on participating in
the process.
The recognition and awards are
NOT the goal - they are the
reward we use to motivate
students to achieve the goals.
Guiding Thoughts about
Competitive Events
The priority is to offer the best learning
experience possible through Health
Occupations Education. HOSA is a part of
that process.
The value of competitive events happens
before the competition. It is the learning
that takes place in the days, weeks and
months BEFORE the competition.
The competitive events program is
designed to be comprehensive,
challenging, and efficient, with minimal
duplication of effort.
The competitive events program is not just
a bunch of events – it’s a comprehensive
PROGRAM.
• Participation in the HOSA National
Competitive Events program can reinforce
classroom learning.
• Quite often we see an improvement in
classroom performance in students who
participate in competitive events.
• This happens when learning becomes a
“choice” for students, instead of something
that is “forced” upon them.
The learning outcomes of involvement in CE
can be summarized as follows:
Health Science Events
(Terminology, Math, Spelling and
Knowledge Tests)
Reinforce and remind students of
fundamental concepts of Health
Occupations Education. These events
should serve as a review for students who
plan to continue their education, as the
terminology of medicine is central to all
health professions.
Health Professions Events (Skill events)
Help individualize skill instruction based on
the student’s career goal. They provide the
outline for individualized units of
instruction in a comprehensive HOE class,
or support actual classroom goals for
career-specific courses.
Specifically, students who plan to pursue
any health career could learn the
knowledge and skills associated with the
event as their individualized instructional
plan for a unit on career development.
Emergency Preparedness Events
(CPR, EMT, CERT, Emergency
Preparedness, Epidemiology, MRC
Partnership)
Help build teamwork skills while
strengthening individual
and team skill instruction
for emergency situations.
Leadership Events
(Health Poster, Speaking, Writing, Job
Seeking, Medical Photography)
Strengthen the leadership and basic
communication skills of future healthcare
professionals using many forms of
communication.
Teamwork Events (help build teamwork)
(Community Awareness, Medical Reading,
Health Education, Public Service
Announcement)
Skills while strengthening
understand of the medical community
(HOSA Bowl, Biomedical Debate)
Medical knowledge
(Career Health Display, Forensic Medicine)
Careers
(Parliamentary Procedure and Creative
Problem Solving)
Critical thinking.
Recognition Events
(National Service Project, Barbara James)
and recognition (National Recognition
Program, Outstanding HOSA Chapter,
Chapter Newsletter, HOSA Week)
Provide an opportunity for community
service, an opportunity to apply academic
learning to real human needs and to make
the knowledge gained usable in
one's thinking beyond the situation
in which the learning occurred.
Participating in the HOSA National
Competitive Events program gives the
HOE student a golden opportunity to
network with health care professionals
beyond the classroom and clinical
experience. The added learning
supports the student’s ability to make
informed personal career decisions,
and to become a contributing
member of the health care
community.
Using HOSA in the Classroom
Examples of how teachers use HOSA in
the classroom are numerous Examples
are to follow and others can be found on
the National HOSA website,
www.hosa.org.at
The point is, HOSA competitive events
program is first and foremost about health
science learning and preparing the student
for a health career.
Health Science Events
Testing – Medical Terminology
Print or show the guidelines and explain the test plan.
Using the unit terminology list have the students write
definitions for the words.
Next, have the students write at least 20 multiple choice
items to measure the terminology content.
Then have them develop a test plan based on their
questions. (This uses math to find percentages.)
Take up the assignment and then give the tests to the
students the next day to complete for a daily grade.
(Make sure you do not give a student their own test.)
For the Medical and Dental Spelling tests,
simply write the definition and then four
response choices.
For example: The largest bone in the body is
the:
A. Feemer.
B. Femur.
C. Feemur.
D. Femer.
Use the guidelines to guide you through the
Medical Spelling event using the terminology
lists provided with each unit of study.
Health Professions Events
Skill Events
If you have a student who wants to be a
veterinarian, give the student a copy of the
Veterinary Assisting guidelines and have
the student volunteer at an animal clinic,
so they can learn the skills and prepare for
competition. At the same time the student
figures out if he/she really wants to be a
veterinarian and prepares to succeed
in pursuing a veterinary career.
Skills
Different states, facilities, organizations
and authors may differ on specific skill
requirements and procedures or steps.
The HOSA National program is sensitive
to differences in skill procedures.
We believe the students have the right to
know the standards to which they will be
held accountable. – Rating Sheets
HOSA does not believe that one specific text
resource is better than another but we do
believe that it helps students to know the
source of steps in a specific procedure, which
is why a resource is selected and published
in event guidelines.
The skill events also have a test prior to the
skill round. There are many reasons for
including a Round One test, including:
Tests mirror the industry. Most health
professions use testing to qualify a
candidate for certification or licensure.
HOSA strives to model professional
standards by requiring that students
demonstrate an understanding
of the skills in addition to being
able to perform the skills.
Testing raises the bar. HOSA believes that
students who must take a test in order to qualify
for Round Two will work harder and study more
than students who do not have a test. For that
reason, testing raises the learning value of the
event.
There is a correlation between test
scores and skill scores. For years,
HOSA gathered evidence by comparing
skill scores to test scores. We found that,
consistently, students who are highly skilled are
also knowledgeable. Students who performed
very poorly on skills also performed poorly on
the tests.
HOSA uses a 70% rule in national
competitive events skills and encourages
chapter advisors to use the same standard
(or higher) in classroom skill instruction.
The 70% rule means that competitors
must score at least 70% of the total
possible score for a skill (or combined
skills) in order to be recognized in
National Competition. For example,
let’s assume a student in Veterinary
Assisting.
Skill - VA
Points Possible
Apply/Remove Restraint Muzzle
Canine CPR
Total
32
36
68
70%
22
25
47
In order for a student to earn finalist honors
or a medal in this event, he or she must
score a 47 or higher on the skills.
The test score does NOT count in the 70%
rule, but is used to break a tie.
Skill Chart
Event Skills
HHA
NA
PC
CPR
Emptying a Urinary
Drainage Bag
Make an
Unoccupied Bed
Measure and record
Vital Signs (TPR)
Adult Team CPR
HS II
NF
X
X
X
X
X
X
Practicing Skills
Select a HOSA skill checklist from the event guidelines
as a skill rubric for instruction in classroom skills.
Have students practice the skill using the selected skill
checklist.
Allow fellow students to serve as the judges in rating the
student on the skill (2-3 judges per skill). It is often a
good learning experience to allow students the chance to
see how it feels to “judge.”
Note: Some skill sheets may differ
than the ones in the curriculum.
Unless you are certifying NA
students the HOSA ones should
meet the curriculum objectives.
Debrief the activity:
How many students earned “perfect” skill scores? How did
that feel?
For those who didn’t earn “perfect”
scores, why didn’t they? What would it
take to get a perfect score?
Did all the judges who judged a skill end up with the same
rating? Can you explain why? Or why not?
Did the student performing the skill think he/she earned a
better score than actually achieved? What does that tell
us?
Have students read “Your Ticket to Orlando .” Do they
agree with the article? Why or why not?
www.hosa.org/emag/articles/news_october03_pg5.pdf
Clinical Specialty
In this assignment you will be using the Clinical
Specialty event guidelines as a career exploration
project.
Give students a copy of the Clinical Specialty guidelines
and a copy of the article “Clinical Specialty” from the
HOSA e-Magazine, October 2003. Great basic
information but the event has been updated so please
refer to the guidelines for accurate info.
Instruct students to follow the rules outlined in the
guidelines, with the exception of the career choice. For
this assignment, students should either choose the
health career they plan to pursue, or a career they wish
to know more about.
Note: If students wish to use this project for future HOSA
competition, they would need to assure that the career
choice does fall within the guidelines.
Provide class time for independent research
on this project. Provide direction and
encouragement.
Depending on the time available and classroom
circumstances, the teacher may wish to eliminate the
skill portion of the assignment.
Bring in community health professionals to “judge” the
final product. Involving parents and school administrators
can also provide positive publicity for your program.
Don’t hesitate to invite your local newspapers. They like
to write about innovative learning activities in schools.
Leadership Events
Leadership events are designed to promote
leadership and learning in HOE students. This
category offers a series of events and rubrics
that are readily integrated into any unit of
instruction in all HOE courses.
The HOSA events in this category reinforce
cognitive, creative and real-world skills. As
classroom tools, these events can be used to
reinforce the content in all HOE courses and
serve to reinforce basic skills.
Extemporaneous Health Poster
This event should become a “regular” in your classroom
because it develops a student’s thinking skills and
creativity – and provides a lasting instructional tool
(posters!).
In the classroom, use the concept and
rating sheet (rubric).
Try to assign each student or group a
different topic. For example, when teaching the
Endocrine system, assign each group a different disease
or disorder.
Use complex topics. Assigning the “function” of the
digestive system requires more thought than simply
assigning the anatomy of the digestive system.
This makes an excellent homework assignment.
Depending on the availability of resources, the
teacher may assign the topic as homework so
students can research the topic. In the
classroom explain they are to put their
information onto poster board provided by the
teacher.
One teacher assigned each student a “health
hero” about 2 weeks before starting that unit.
The assignment was to create a poster about
the person assigned. When it was time to begin
the unit on historical perspectives in health care,
the walls of the room were filled with posters that
told of each individual’s accomplishments
If you want specific information on the posters
be sure to give the students guidelines for the
info but let them be free in their delivery.
Have the students share their posters and
aide the teacher in teaching the material.
Be sure to display student posters. If the
topic is a public health issue, display the
posters around campus.
When using this process, you
may notice some students do
exceptionally well with this
type of assignment.
Job Seeking Skills
This event is an excellent tool for reinforcing a
unit of instruction on finding and securing a job.
In this instance, implementing every step of the
event exactly as written in the guidelines is a
good idea.
Use judges and choose them wisely. School or
central office administrators make good judges.
Invite a health care personnel director.
Remember that whomever you choose, the
judge will come away with a better
understanding of the Health Occupations
Education program and the quality of
your students.
Another option is to use parts of the
process in a role play situation. If you are
teaching about historical figures in health
care, have students create a resume for
an assigned historical figure. If you are
teaching a career unit, have students act
out an interview between an employer and
someone pursuing a specific assigned
career. Let students take on the roles of
interviewer and interviewee.
Integrate Job Seeking Skills into classroom
instruction.
This event works well as the culmination health
careers unit.
Be sure to let students know the process you will
be using. Give students the rating sheet or tell
them where to find the rating sheet on HOSA’s
website.
Remember, is a student plans to compete in this
event, his/her job must be real and attainable for
them in the present time, i.e. nursing assisting,
pharmacy tech, EMT, etc.
Speaking Events
Speaking events are an excellent tool for
developing student learning and
leadership skills. These events can easily
be adjusted to meet the desired learning
outcomes in the classroom.
When speeches are to be given in class,
often the time is adjusted down in
order to take up less class time and
assure that all students have a
chance to give their speech.
The first time you assign classroom
speeches, allow students to give the
speeches in pairs or small groups. It is
sometimes easier to give a speech when
the parts are shared by another
classmate.
You can allow students to use the HOSA
event rating sheet to evaluate the
speeches of their peers.
Integrate either Extemporaneous
Speaking, Prepared Speaking, or
Researched Persuasive Speaking into
classroom instruction.
Determine what event and process you
will use and for what content. Be sure to
develop a process that makes good use of
class time and requires students to
THINK!
Write out the process you will use. Give
students a copy of the process and rating
sheet.
Extemporaneous Speaking
Extemporaneous speaking can provide a fun
method of reviewing for a midterm or final
exam.
Explain the event and what will be done at
least 2 days ahead of time.
Demonstrate the event.
It is often an interesting experience to have a
teacher give a speech while students rate the
speech using the HOSA event rating sheet.
What we find is that the scores will range
from a high of 100 to a low of about 60. This
is because of the subjective nature of
evaluating speaking skills.
Prepare topic(s) ahead of time and place in an
envelope.
The students draw an envelope but they do not
open it as yet.
Make the topic fun, creative, and related to the
areas for review.
Examples: “The Most Important Function of
the Integumentary System” or “How Does
the Circulatory and Lymphatic Systems
Work Together?” or “A Health Professional
Should As If ………”.
 Have the students rate each other using
the HOSA rating sheets found in the
guidelines.
You can reduce the preparation time.
While one student is preparing students
can rate the student who just spoke.
Another option would be to have students
write down important points after each
speech – both based on what they heard
and what they know themselves. The
teacher can clarify those points.
Remember, this is a review!
Prepared Speaking
Explain the event at least a couple of days
prior to the assignment. This is good for
an intro to a unit.
For example, rather than assign organs in
the digestive system and have students
talk about the facts.
Another example: “Why it’s so bad if
you lose your liver.” or “Why
Credential Health Care Professions?” it
depends on the unit and how it is used.
Researched Persuasive Speaking
This event combines research, writing and speaking. As
a classroom assignment it is often done as a major
classroom project.
This event differs from other speaking events in that it
asks students to defend a point of view. As a classroom
assignment, the teacher should assign a topic based on
course content, and allow students to support an opinion
on either side of the topic.
Researched persuasive speaking involves
current health-related issues. Students are
often required to do Internet research. The
HOE teacher should help students understand
the following guidelines.
Internet Research Guidelines
Internet resources must be evaluated for
accuracy.
Identify and develop your topic.
Use more than one search engine. A few
common search engines are:
–
–
–
–
–
Yahoo – www.yahoo.com
Google – www.google.com
Bing – www.bing.com
Ask – www.ask.com
Open Directory – www.dmoz.com
Search engines provide a number of features
to help with a search, so be sure to read any
of the help menu or advanced search options
information.
This event can be used in conjunction with an
English class paper or project.
Choose a current event topics that go with
your units of study.
Remember you will need to assign the topics
2-4 weeks prior to the start of the unit.
Example: “To tube My Child’s Ears or Not to
Tube My child’s Ears”
Extemporaneous Writing
This event lends itself to all types of classroom
content while reinforcing an important basic skill.
As a homework assignment, classroom activity
or assessment, Extemporaneous Writing should
be frequently used in the HOE classroom.
Be sure students have a copy of the rating sheet
(rubric) before starting this or any assignment
that uses HOSA competitive events. Students
need to know the standards by which they will
be evaluated.
Example
Ask your students who are learning about
legal and ethical responsibilities to write an
essay on the value of ethics in the health
professions and grade the essay using the
Extemporaneous Writing rating sheet.
(Educators call them rubrics.)
Ask the students to write on “The Value of
Knowing Body Directions, Planes and
cavities.
There are many websites available to help
students improve writing skills. Here are just a
few:
Writing Tips Essay Builder from Writing DEN
http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/essay/
Guide to Writing a Basic Essay
http://lklivingston.trpod.com/essay/
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
http://www.powa.org/
Top 10 Essay Writing Tips
http://www.studentnow.com/features/essayswriti
ngtips.html
Integrate Extemporaneous Writing into classroom
instruction.
Give students a copy of the EW rating sheet and an
essay topic.
Have students write their paper within the given time and
rate it according to the rating sheets. Then consider this
the first draft, schedule a day in the Internet lab and give
students time to review Internet resources that provide
instruction on writing an essay, and let them revise their
essays using what they learned doing their Internet
research. You might want them to review the
information also prior to writing the final paper.
Note to teacher: Students typically write LOTS of papers
in college. You can help them to create a
tremendously good essay by teaching them
how to write and rewrite a good essay.
Teamwork Events
Parliamentary Procedure:
Here is what students gain from participation
in this event:
Basic knowledge of parliamentary
procedure they will use in church, clubs
and business meetings for the rest of their
lives.
A real “team” experience.
Practice in thinking, speaking and
debating.
Participation in a democratic process that:
– Enables a group to transact business with
speed and efficiency.
– Protects the rights of each individual.
– Preserves a spirit of harmony within
the group.
Parliamentary Procedure
Divide the class into two or three teams of five - eight
students per team.
Follow the process for “Parliamentary Procedure: Three
Days in the Classroom.”
Teach parliamentary procedure using the Parliamentary
Procedure PowerPoint and the Parliamentary Procedure
Information handouts.
Give students a day to practice in class.
Facilitate team demonstrations of a simulated HOSA
chapter meeting using parliamentary procedure.
Career Health Display (CHD)
The Career Health Display rubric (rating sheet)
can be adapted to evaluate a display that
illustrates a number of different topics. This
makes the Career Health Display an excellent
classroom tool.
Have the students choose a partner and draw a
name of a health profession. (Prepare cards
ahead of time.) Give the students a
copy of the CHD guidelines and ask
them to create a display. Students can
exchange professions but all must be
done.
The displays are shared with the class.
Bring in local health professionals to judge
according to the rating sheets.
Have the students share the displays
within the school or during a career day.
Another option: Present students with
topic options. The topic can be a health
career (as required in the guidelines) or
any number of topics. Virtually anything
that is taught in the classroom can be
demonstrated using the CHD rating sheet.
Possible examples include:
Diseases and Disorders
Body Systems
Historical Figures in Health Care
Health Facilities
Technology in Health Care
Have students create a display on an assigned
topic, either independently or in pairs. Grade the
display using the adapted rating sheet. If
possible, exhibit the best displays in the media
center or during a school open house.
HOSA Bowl
Have students write four - five fill-in-the-blank
questions from the unit being studied. Write
each question on a different index card. The
questions should be short answer with the
answer coming at the end of the question.
Use the HOSA Bowl format and buzzer system
as a fun method of reviewing for an
exam, using the student-created
questions. If you do not have a
buzzer system you can use a bell.
Biomedical Debate
This event makes an outstanding classroom
assignment using the existing guidelines and
rating sheets.
First, decide if both the preliminary and debate
rounds are going to be used, or just the debate
round.
Divide students into teams of three –
four members per team.
Determine the topic(s) to be debated. At least
two teams must have the same topic in order to
debate each other. (Confidentiality – Everyone’s
Right? Or “Heart Transplants – No Restriction”)
Usually, teachers assign the topic one - two
weeks before the presentation to provide plenty
of time to research the topic. A day in the school
computer lab is helpful in completing Internet
research. At least one day in the classroom for
practice is also recommended.
Invite professionals from the health care
community to judge classroom presentations.
Medical Reading
Instructors use this event to promote reading
skills in students.
At the beginning of the year, select one or two books
from the Medical Reading list.
Divide students into teams of three members per team.
Assign the books for out-of-class reading. A semester is
usually a good amount of time for the assignment.
Have each student write two - three questions per book
on an index card. The questions should be short answer,
with the answer provided on the same side of the card.
Write a 25 item multiple choice test for the books and
administer the test.
Allow the top three scoring teams to compete in the
question-answer round using the questions written by
students.
Select judges from the top three scoring students (using
the multiple choice test) whose team did not make it to
the final round.
Present awards to the winning team.
Debrief the activity. How does the content in the book(s)
relate to what was learned in the classroom this year?
Creative Problem Solving
Write a secret problem that relates to the course unit
being studied.
Divide the class into teams of three - four members per
team.
Give teams 15 minutes to consider the secret problem to
be solved.
Allow teams to present their solution to the class.
Use the HOSA Creative Problem Solving rating sheet to
evaluate each team’s presentation.
Example: “Medical Decisions” (Appendix 1H15.03A)
Look on the NC HOSA website, www.nchosa.org
Community Awareness
In class have the students develop a
questionnaire that would help to identify people
who might be prone to diabetes mellitus.
Your HOSA chapter could get the questionnaire
published in the school newspaper. Along with
the questionnaire, publish a list of lifestyle
changes that might help prevent or delay the
onset of diabetes.
Tie this into a fund raising activity for the
National HOSA Service Project – Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.
National Recognition Program
This event should be required of EVERY
Health Occupations Education student.
The “big picture” purpose of Health
Occupations Education is to prepare
tomorrow’s health care professionals, and
no event helps students more toward
achieving that goal than the National
Recognition Program.
Through the National Recognition
Program (NRP) students create a portfolio.
The completed portfolio provides evidence
of a student’s accomplishments in
preparation for a health career. Successful
completion of the portfolio will satisfy
portfolio components of the Certificate of
Achievement for National Health Care
(Foundation) Skills Standards. (For more
information: www.nchste.com.)
In addition, students are encouraged to use the
portfolio as evidence of pre-professional growth
and accomplishments when participating in
interviews for scholarships, college admission,
and jobs.
The student must satisfy ten criteria for the
portfolio. The event rating sheet lists the criteria
and a description. The HOSA website at
http://www.hosa.org/emag/articles/leadership_m
ay03_pg1.pdf contains sample pages for each
criteria to give the novice an idea of what the
portfolio should look like.
Here are some tips for implementing the National
Recognition Program in the classroom.
Give students as much time as possible to complete the
portfolio.
Some instructors prefer to use this as a “senior project”
type of assignment.
Invite community leaders or advisory committee
members to judge the portfolios.
If the portfolio is not done as part of HOSA competition,
then the student can put more individual expression in
the format of the portfolio.
On the other hand, this is a great classroom assignment
that can also provide positive recognition for students
through state and national HOSA conferences.
If the event is to be used for HOSA, but sure to
follow the guidelines EXACTLY as written.
The portfolio is not rated on a scale with many
different levels of achievement as with many
rubrics, but instead, is rated on a two-point
scale. Each criteria is rated as:
Yes, the standard was met as described in the
description column, or No, it was not.
When the portfolio is part of classroom
instruction, students are often given a second
chance to fix a section until it reaches the
standard set by the instructor.
See:
“Tips for Success” National Recognition
Program
http://www.hosa.org/emag/articles/leaders
hip_march03_pg2.pdf
See:
VIII. Instructional Techniques – See:
http://www.hosa.org/natorg/hoeguide/itech
.html
From: “A Guide For Integrating HOSA Into
The HOE Classroom”
Save Time and Have Fun
Use the HOSA Competitive Events
Guidelines to save time, make things
easier and prepare students for
competitive events.
Have fun in the classroom. Let the
students do the work.
Thank You
Please call me 919 807-3900 OR e-mail
me fcress@dpi.state.nc.us for any
questions:
HOSA Web Sites:
– National HOSA: www.hosa.org
– NC HOSA: www.nchosa.org
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