HOSA Class 2009
I grew up going to the trade school with my grandmother, Ruth Watts, who was the guidance counselor there for many years. I was always fascinated by the amazing things I would find in Mrs. Wanda Mount's classroom. She would make me paper nursing hats to play with while they got their classrooms ready for the upcoming school year. Having her as a teacher was a truly rewarding experience. She was more than a teacher, she was a life coach. I attended the trade school, which had just been renamed the Bibb County Career Academy, during my junior year of high school. At the time, HOSA as we all knew it also changed to "Medical Academy".
I always knew I wanted to go into healthcare, but I could never settle on one particular path. Had it not been for my clinical rotations during HOSA, I probably would have wasted a few years of college just trying to figure it out. Instead, I knew exactly the path I wanted to take and went for it. I knew right away, anything to do with teeth and dental work was NOT for me (If you could only see my face behind that mask in the last photo)! My favorite rotations were the emergency room and hospital floor where I worked for a few years during college. The ER was always new and exciting but the hospital floor offered a lot of new learning experiences and opportunities to observe therapy. A mentor and future colleague gave me a solid piece of advice one day while we were changing a wound dressing...
You're a smart girl with nothing but time. Go on to therapy school, grad school will fly by!
Thanks to my training in HOSA and experience working at BMC, I changed jobs to work as a PCT at Northport DCH Rehabilitation. They did not have any rehab aid positions open at the time, but eventually one came available and I got the job. I cannot tell you how crucial my time and experiences there were to my success in OT school and as an occupational therapist. I learned about pediatrics, geriatrics, low vision, driving rehabilitation, teaching group exercise classes, patient transfers, documentation, scheduling, I could go on and on.
I completed my undergrad at The University of Alabama in Exercise Physiology in three years and then applied to occupational therapy school. During that period of waiting for acceptance, I worked at DCH as an intake specialist at DCH Home Medical Equipment. This was one of those times in life when I realized I was put there for a reason. I learned about how patients qualify for equipment, how to complete wheelchair assessments, and insurance qualifications. This knowledge was so helpful in therapy school, but more so after graduation when I started working independently.
In every stage of my career I have found that without the basic fundamentals I learned in HOSA, I would not have been as successful as a student, as an employee, and as a person. Learning how to be compassionate to patients, how to ensure their dignity remains intact, and that safety is a priority are skills that apply in any healthcare profession. That is what makes HOSA so important.
To learn more about occupational therapy checkout UAB's website: https://www.uab.edu/shp/ot/
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