The mission of HOSA is to enhance the delivery of compassionate, quality health care by providing opportunities for knowledge, skill and leadership development of all health science education students, therefore, helping the student meet the needs of the healthcare community.
We are committed to building a community of collaborative health leaders. Here are some of our goals that we aim to achieve:
To promote physical, mental and social wellbeing.
To develop effective leadership qualities and skills.
To develop the ability to communicate more effectively with people.
To build self-confidence and pride in one’s work.
To develop an understanding of the importance in interacting and cooperating with other students and organizations.
To encourage individual and group achievement.
To develop an understanding of current health care issues, environmental concerns, and survival needs of the community, the nation and the world.
To encourage involvement in local, state and national health care and education projects.
To promote career opportunities in health care.
There are many reasons why you should be affiliated with HOSA, whether you are planning to go into the medical field or not. Here are just a few of our favorites:
Compete with other students across the world in one of HOSA’s 56 health related competitive events.
Community Service Opportunities and Recognition
Leadership Opportunities
Scholarships!
Large network of students and professionals in the health community
Starting a chapter is a simple 4-step process. If you want to see what HOSA all is about and experience what can be considered as some of the best moments of your life, look no further!
HOSA is a primarily student-led organization, but an adult is required for every chapter to overlook all operations. Typically, an advisor will be a science teacher at a school, but it can be any school personnel that has an interest in healthcare sciences. Once you have found someone who is interested in sponsoring your chapter, make sure that they recognize and understand the responsibilities that come with being an advisor. That can be found in Section C of the HOSA Handbook. Once you have your adult advisor secured, be prepared to recruit at least 5 members.
Congratulations on finding an advisor! Once that is done and you have found students who have expressed interest, it is time to contact the state office. Your chapter advisor should either call or email the state advisor. The state advisor is a great resource who will help you every step of the way. They will ensure that you get all the latest updates from the state office, and they will put you in touch with the regional advisor.
The chapter advisor should also contact the national office in order to obtain a charter number and password. That will allow the chapter advisor to access the online Affiliation System to register members. This system can be found on hosa.org. You can find more information on the Affiliation System website.
Now you want to focus on establishing your HOSA chapter in your school. Make sure that you set a place and time for the first meeting. Print out flyers and if possible, try to see if you can get it advertised in the afternoon announcements. HOSA isn’t just for students who want to become medical professionals. It is a place to foster growth in students who are interested in all sorts of things. You can obtain many of your members through the Snowball Effect, which is where students will spread the word at an exponential rate.
The last step is gathering a list of students who have demonstrated interested in joining. It is highly advised thatall health scneice students have HOSA integrated in their classes. It can help expose them to HOSA and provide them an advantage. You should set a deadline for dues and paperwork. Once that is done, make sure that all the registration is done through the Affiliation System and verify with the regional advisor that everything is good to go. More students can always be added later on, if needed.
Special thanks to Florida HOSA for this page; you can find more information here.