On Wednesday, October 7, the Box Butte General Hospital based Health Professions Club took students from both Alliance High School as well as Hemingford High School to the Health Professions Conference, located at Chadron State College.

The Conference started out with a greeting, in which all the students from around the Panhandle were separated into three separate groups. Each group would rotate between the cadaver lab, a small presentation about scholarships such as RHOP, as well as Army Medicine opportunities, and a room filled with presentations from various areas of medical sciences that students could choose from.

Each summer, Chadron State College is given four cadavers to work on for the duration of the year. Students are able to study the muscle groups, as well as skin conditions and organ placement. Some organs and limbs are removed from the body completely and placed in labeled containers for continued study. We were shown the cross section of a human head as well as a knee replacement. The students are not given the cause of death for the various cadavers, but in studying the body comes with giving a possible diagnosis. For example, the cadaver we were shown had a port in the chest, suggesting that the man had cancer. He also had staples in his chest, suggesting open-heart surgery. The faces of the dead are covered out of respect until it is time to examine the neck, muscles, and head.

During the scholarship presentation, we were told about the RHOP program, which accepts a certain amount of students for each discipline, including areas of study such as physical therapy and regular medicine. The program is very exclusive and is the most rigorous program at CSC. After completing a degree at Chadron, the recipients of the RHOP scholarship have a guaranteed spot at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where they have the opportunity to complete their specialization in the field they have chosen.

The groups that the students were able to choose from included physical therapy, suturing, audiology, blood pressure, intoxication, and injection stations. We were given information on the various fields of study and were given the opportunity to try things such as giving a banana stitches and administering 1 cc of fluid to a squishy bag. My personal favorite was the intoxication station, in which we were able to put on one of four pairs of glasses, each showing different levels of intoxication. After we put the glasses on, we were challenged to walk in a straight line.

After all the activities and a lunch provided by the president of the college, we were given a tour of the campus. We were able to go into different dorm halls as well as the Physical Activity Center. All in all, it was a very educational trip and gave the students a good look into life at CSC. I will definitely be considering Chadron State College for my continued education.