The BRPT’s President-Elect, Amber Allen, BA, CCSH, RPSGT, has been busy talking with students and other individuals interested in exploring various roles in the healthcare industry. In April, she spoke to 300 students enrolled in the HLTH 1100 – Career Explorations for the Health Professions course at the University of Texas at Dallas.
This course is centered on guest speakers and aims to achieve a holistic approach for healthcare while exploring the details and realities of various health professions. In doing so, the students investigate the many options for present and next-generation health careers and learn what courses and activities will open doors to their areas of interest.
Amber noted, “These students are interested in healthcare but have not yet decided which healthcare specialty they’d like to pursue.” Each Spring the professor, Dr. Kathleen Byrnes, recruits guest speakers from a variety of health science disciplines to speak to her students. Amber spoke at length about the field of polysomnography in general and what it means to be, and the benefits of being, a sleep technologist as well as the program she oversees at Collin College, to train future sleep technologists. Amber has enjoyed speaking with these students for a number of years, “I love talking with these students and answering their questions – many of whom stay afterward for further discussion, and this year was no exception,” said Amber.
Later in the month, Amber had the opportunity to speak at the Dallas-Fort Worth Health Information Management Association (DFW HIMA) Spring Workshop on the topic of “The Cost of Sleep Deprivation.” This is the organization that represents District 13 (DFW) of the Texas Health Information Management Association (TxHIMA) which is a Component State Association of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).
Amber noted that sleep is one of the wellness areas where these professionals can receive continuing education credits for their participation and there were more than 160 attendees at this workshop. Amber was thrilled to engage with an enthusiastic group of healthcare professionals interested in sleep and was excited to be invited back for future workshops on the topic.
And, most recently this month, Amber hosted approximately 100 high school students for tours of her on-campus sleep lab at Collin College, a CAAHEP-accredited Polysomnographic Technology Program in McKinney, Texas. Amber conducts several of these tours each year for high school students and, as she notes, “it’s always a highlight to speak with them about polysomnography and the many interesting and rewarding aspects of sleep.”