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Unbeaten: SCC’s respiratory therapy program is 4-0 at state contests over past 2 years

2016-03-14
Southwestern Community College’s statewide gladiator competition champions are, from left: Jay Cleary of Waynesville; Matt Hixon of Candler; and Kasey Wilson of Cullowhee. The “Dead Space Invaders” finished the four-station competition in under 5-1/2 minutes.

In sports terms, Southwestern Community College’s respiratory therapy program is building a dynasty.

Under the guidance of instructors Samantha Campbell and Brent Holland, SCC students have won all four statewide competitions they’ve attended. The most recent of those came last month when second-year students successfully defended the program’s championship at the Gladiator competition in Blowing Rock.

Competing under the team name “The Dead Space Invaders,” Jay Cleary, Matt Hixon and Kasey Wilson won by completing the four-station course the fastest on Feb. 18. Not only did they finish in a time of five minutes, 16 seconds, but they were the only team to do so without a single error.

“The competition is very teamwork-based so everybody had to work together well and communicate well in order to be fast,” Cleary said. “So it did help us all get better at working with other people, teamwork, communication as well as our technical skills.”

Besides dominating Gladiator competitions, SCC respiratory therapy students have won two consecutive Sputum Bowl contests since Campbell and Holland arrived as program coordinator and clinical coordinator, respectively, in 2014.

“The Dead Space Invaders” competed against six other teams - one from SCC and others from Central Piedmont Community College and Cataba Community College.

The first station of the course consisted of taking vital signs, breath sounds, heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate. At the second station, they had to complete an Allen’s Test and draw an ABG (Arterial Blood Gas), label it and send it off to the lab. At the next station their patient went into cardiac arrest and they had to put him on the bed and do CPR, successfully intibate, secure and get a pulse back. At the last station they had to put their patient on an ventilator.

“The Servo ventilator isn’t a popular ventilator, Hixon said. “We are lucky enough to have one at SCC to practice on. When everyone else got to the vent section it would take them three to four minutes to do it, and it took us 35 seconds.”

Wilson added: “It was pretty neat because you could tell that the teams from our school had practice on that ventilator. All of our teams did great on that section it took us no time to set it up whereas the other teams struggled because they didn’t know how to set it up and accept all the settings.”

SCC’s Respiratory therapy program still holds the fastest time (5:09) in the history of the Gladiator competition. The student leader of that record-holding group, Jody Miller, is now the manager of the respiratory department at Mission Hospital.

For more information about SCC’s respiratory therapy program, contact Campbell at 828.339.4472 ors_campbell@southwesterncc.edu.

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