By Don Rush

This summer two Oxford High School graduates did something no others have done. They earned a bronze medal for taking third place in the Emergency Medical Technician event at the HOSA-Future Health Professionals 46th Annual International Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas.

“It was an amazing experience,” Mackayla McNamara, 18, said.

“Unbelievable,” echoed her partner at the competition, Hailey Wilson, also 18.

“That’s a huge accomplishment,” said Oxford Fire Department’s Kelly Kilgore, “With that many teams, they were the only team from Oxford to medal in this competition.”

McNamara and Wilson were two of 16 students who attended an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Education class at the fire department, taught by Kilgore. This coming school year will be the fourth year the department has partnered with Oxford Community Schools Health Science Career and Technical Education program. Kilgore said 23 students have signed up for this coming year.

Students in the class, through lectures and in-field experience learn what it takes to be an EMT. When students turn 18, they can take the exam to become a licensed EMT in Michigan.

“It’s a college level course,” Kilgore said. “They learn CPR, how to treat others, how to be a professional, how to assess if someone is in pain or injured or if someone is just sick. They also learn legal issues.”

“I learned a lot more than I expected,” McNamara said. “I also learned a lot about myself by being able to go out and do clinicals to see what it feels like actually being in the field. It wasn’t exactly what I expected – what you see on the internet and tv. It’s not as crazy and chaotic as I expected. Everyone was there to help us learn. Even if that wasn’t their job, they helped us learn things we didn’t get in class.”

“In the beginning I was very nervous,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know what to expect. But, by going through the clinicals and practice and lectures, I really came to understand what the emergency medicine world is like and I like it.”

Both Wilson and McNamara say emergency medicine will figure into their futures. In a few weeks both will start their college careers. Wilson said she will start taking general studies courses through Oakland Community College. McNamara will head to Lake Superior State University to study nursing.

To be in the competition the pair had to belong to the HOSA-Future Health Professionals. HOSA-Future Health Professionals is a “global student-led organization whose mission is to promote career opportunities in the health industry and enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people.”

Before going to the internationals, they competed in Regional and then State competitions. At each level teams take written exams and then move on to test their skills in life-like scenarios. They finished first at the Regionals in Troy, and third at the State competition in Traverse City.

Both girls credited Kilgore, the class at the Oxford Fire Department and Marina Gillett, a health science instructor at OHS and their HOSA Advisor, for their success.