One of the best high school nursing assistant students in the country is a senior at Cuyahoga Heights High School. As a state qualifier, Emilee Sanicky, who is currently in the Health Careers program at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (CVCC), will compete against her peers from around the country at the national HOSA Future Health Professionals Conference June 18-21 in Nashville, Tennessee. HOSA (formerly Health Occupations Students of America) is an organization dedicated to advancing the needs of students pursuing professions in the healthcare fields.
For the past two years, Sanicky has been actively involved in HOSA. In March, she competed at the regional level in Medina, Ohio where she emerged to qualify for the state competition that was held in April in Toledo.
The state contest was a rigorous process that included a written exam focusing on the body and its systems as well as patient care and safety. This included nursing assistant roles and responsibilities, anatomy and physiology, infection control and safety, providing and documenting care, and dealing with disabilities and disorders. This was followed by a skills-based competition in which Sanicky had to be ready to perform a variety of essential nursing assisting skills: taking vital signs, making an unoccupied bed, transferring a patient with a disability, providing ostomy care, washing hands, making an occupied bed, admitting a patient, and donning and doffing a full set of PPE (Personalized Protective Equipment).
“It's kind of surreal to know that I am the top high school nursing assistant student in the state,” said Sanicky about her accomplishment. “It's not something that I ever saw myself achieving. Without the support from those around me I really wouldn't have been able to achieve this.”
To prepare for the national contest, Sanicky plans to review anatomy and physiology as well as the nursing skills that she might be called on to perform. “I know that I am competing against others that are on the same level as I am, so I need to be sure to give it my all and show what I truly know,” she noted.
Sanicky is looking forward to competing in Nashville and is excited at the prospect of meeting new people that share her passion to provide quality healthcare. “Going into a national competition is nerve wracking but I know that if I show what I know and prepare for what is to come, I will give it my best shot.”
