“Want to hear a joke about Amnesia? Oh wait, I forgot it!”. Amisha Poojari, the vice president of HOSA, began the class meeting last week with this joke, introducing the school to the HOSA academic club.  Combining fun, hands-on activities, and most importantly expanding students’ knowledge of the medical field is what the HOSA club is all about. So, what exactly is HOSA? 

HOSA, which previously stood for Health Occupation student association, now stands for Future Health professionals to encourage all ages of people internationally to join. The HOSA club was started this year by freshman Saivi Gadi, Sanjana Gandhi, and Amisha Poojari. Saivi Gadi, the president of HOSA, knew she wanted to create a club for students aspiring to work in the medical field, so over the summer, she reached out to Shelly Wehmeyer, the Missouri HOSA advisor. Soon after, Saivi discovered that Ms. Pickett, a new teacher at MICDS, led the HOSA club at her previous school. Ms. Pickett, Saivi, Sanjana, and Amisha worked on getting the club up and running before the start of the 2021 school year. The club now has a total of 26 members and is still growing. These members will be participating in various medical activities throughout the year, the first one being the suture event the club participated in on October 18th. 

Sutures are stitches used to repair cuts. Usually, sutures are used on real people, luckily the HOSA club instead used something much safer, fake flesh! By using a kit from Apprentice Doctor, everyone was able to work in pairs to practice their stitching skills. Everyone was given needles, a needle holder, and many more supplies to help lead them in this activity. At the end of the period, almost everyone had learned a new stitching skill, improving upon their medical skills. 

Overall, according to the HOSA international organization, “The mission is to empower future health professionals to become leaders” and MICDS students in the HOSA club are striving to accomplish this goal. According to the vice president, Sanjana, events such as “the suture event, and competitions near the end of the year, and guest speakers” will continue to be hosted in the club to help students further improve their medical skills.