However, Avery Green did something no other student in school history had ever accomplished. She won a state championship in the Health Occupation Students of America recently.
This qualifies her to do something else that has never been accomplished before by an Aledo student — compete for a national championship July 18-21 in Nashville.
“I am very honored to be the first student to win at state HOSA. I have been so blessed to have the support system that I have, and I know I couldn’t have gotten to where I am without them,” said Green, who recently graduated from AHS. “I hope that my success also inspires other HOSA members in Aledo to do the best they can, and maybe I can see next year that more students make it to Nationals.”
Her HOSA competition is clinical nursing. It’s basically a competition that judges a person on their knowledge and skills a nurse would perform everyday. This competition includes a National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) style online test for the first round, and a skills demonstration for the second round. However, students have no idea which skills they are going to be asked to perform.
“There are many skills that could be tested for the second round, including inserting a urinary catheter, administering injections, and performing sterile wound irrigation, as well as others,” Green said. “For both area (which she also won) and state competitions, I spent about two to three months in advance studying for both the test and memorizing the 10 different skills required for the skills test.”
She’ll have to do the same when competes in Nashville. Following the online test, the top scorers will move on to the demonstration competition.
“Clinical nursing, through my experience as a nurse, is one of the hardest parts of HOSA to do,” said AHS teacher Alyssa Clader, who introduced Green to the competition. “I’m so proud of her. She’s put in so much work.”
Green has competed in the event since her sophomore season, but this is her first year participating in clinical nursing.
“I am continuing to keep up on the memorization of the skills I might perform, as well as studying for the test,” she said.
Green also recently earned her Certified Clinical Medical Assistant License through the health science pathway at Aledo.
“I plan on using this throughout college as I work towards my degree,” she said.
Then she added with a laugh, “I’ll be honest, my health science teacher, Mrs. Clader, told me and another friend about the competition, and I decided to do it because I had already learned three of the skills for my CCMA class and I thought that that would make it easy. I was wrong.”
Green plans to attend Oklahoma State University in the fall to major in animal science.
Other than HOSA, she was involved in the National Honor Society, Leading Ladies of Aledo High School, and the Health Science Pathway that resulted in a National Health Association License.
Both of her parents are teachers, and she has aunts and uncles involved in the healthcare industry.
Green expressed gratitude to Clader, saying that without her “I would have never have gotten as far as I did.”
Calder, on the other hand, credits the hard work Green put in and believes the best is yet to come.
“She and I spent a lot of time outside the classroom focusing on those skills, but she did so much on her own,” Clader said, adding about the possibility of winning a national championship, “If anyone can do it she can. I have a lot of confidence in her.”
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