A first of its kind Teen Health Camp was held at the American Samoa Community College (ASCC), last Saturday.
It was organized by a program hosted at ASCC, the American Samoa Area Health Education Center (AHEC), which aims to improve the health of the underserved through education and health workforce development.
Locally, AHEC pursues this goal by offering health education opportunities for high school students and supporting existing initiatives at ASCC itself. AHEC also provides professional development training opportunities for healthcare workers already practicing in the field.
More than 40 high school students spent the morning on the ASCC campus receiving hands-on training in medical services and technology.
The Teen Health Camp drew students from Tafuna High School, Samoana High School, Nu’uuli Vocational-Tech High School, Fagaitua High School and Manumalo Baptist Academy.
It began with a presentation by the Department of Health Human Resource Division on the general ASG employment application process.
The students were organized into four even-sized groups and rotated between four training sessions in the areas of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Casting, Suturing, and a new form technology known as Makey Makey—which has frequent applications in the medical field.
Training facilitators included AHEC Program Director Monica Afalava, who led the CPR sessions, and visiting Associate Director of the main AHEC Program Office in Honolulu, Erica Davis, who co-facilitated the Casting sessions. AHEC Scholar provided assistance and led the remaining sessions.
The most unusual session for the Health Camp participants was their introduction to the recently developed device called Makey Makey, which is an invention kit designed to connect everyday objects to computer keys.
Using a circuit board, alligator clips and a USB cable, the device uses closed loop electrical signals to send the computer either a keyboard stroke or mouse click signal. This function allows the Makey Makey to work with any computer program or webpage that will accept a keyboard or mouse click. Given an introduction to the device and how to use it, the student groups were tasked with creating a basic melody on a piano program.
The AHEC Scholars program is a two-year national program designed to better prepare health profession students for future practice in rural and urban underserved communities. It supplements academic programs that end in a medical certificate or degree. In American Samoa, AHEC Scholars currently include Certified Nurse Aides, Licensed Practical Nurses, Emergency Medical Technicians and Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians. Interested students can apply to become an AHEC Scholar at:https://www.tinyurl.com/684ahecscholars
