Kali Justice and Marissa Foster were awarded a silver medal, and each received a $7,000 scholarship after placing second in the National SkillsUSA competition.
Last school year, Kali and Marissa competed as a team in the State SkillsUSA Emergency Medical Technician contest earning gold medals. Having placed as the top Career and Technical Education EMT team in the state, Kali and Marissa were eligible to compete at the National Contest this past June.
Several hours of practice and hands-on learning in the Hillyard Technical Center EMT program gave them the opportunity to explore the EMT trade and develop the skills necessary to perform as a team in real life scenarios as EMT Paramedics. The contest evaluated Kali and Marissa's abilities based on the National Registry Patient Assessment Technical Scope of Practice Standards, the most current American Heart Association CPR/ECC guidelines, and the AAOS Emergency Care and Transportation of the Sick and Injured. They began the competition with a dispatch call from judges and entered a room faced with a staged scene involving a mannequin matching the dispatched message. They immediately began verbalizing their assessment of the scene as they approached the mannequin. The judges then responded with a description of the scene and readings of vitals. Marissa and Kali began assessing those vitals, asking questions to gain information, making decisions on the next steps as judges fed them symptoms, changes in blood pressure, and further updates. They had to make decisions on life saving techniques in the spur of the moment. Other stations modeling skill performance involved First Aid and CPR as a sole responder and as a team using the AED, immobilization of joints and broken bones, hemorrhage control, and oxygen administration on an apneic patient. Without direction from an instructor or a judge, the students had to make decisions as a team based on medical facts and skills learned in the EMT course while being judged on every movement, every technique, and every direction of treatment.
Kali is currently employed as a 9-1-1 dispatcher at the St. Joseph Police Department with the goal of becoming a paramedic. Marissa is currently enrolled in Missouri Western seeking a bachelor's in nursing and plans on continuing her paramedic training at MU. Her career goal is to join the Army and serve in the Medical Service Corps.
Congratulations, Kali and Marissa! You make SJSD proud!
