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Yes, we need you whether you're a student, university staff, faculty, or community health professional. We're an ambitious and large program. We need your help! Our Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 is an attempt to preserve what's best from the traditional way of preparing future health professionals. It's a big but important task.
We discus this in more detail further in this website, but essentially healthcare has changed. We're preserving an important part of the OLD WAY of preparing future health professionals - the Shadow Opportunity.
We're doing this through a unique partnership between Scouting America (Boy Scouts), Lions Clubs International, Texas State University, and all the organizations we're affilliatated with or volunteer within. They're all listed elsewhere on this website.
This is an important and ambitious effort, and we're thankful for the patience of everyone involved. We're hopeful that we will have others join us in this solution.
There is a critical number of members we need to operate the volunteer program we like to offer. We target a membership roster of between 80 and 100 members. At that staffing level, we can open all the volunteer opportunities where you may want to serve. We pride ourselves in having a diverse suite of volunteer opportunities open to just about anyone seeking a career in the health professions. If you want to build a volunteer resume, this is the place.
It's a matter of continuity. Once we open a volunteer opportunity, we need to have enough members to continuously keep the volunteer openings filled. It's a curtesy to the office or agency that has opened their operation to us. It's not nice to keep opening and reopening a volunteer opportunity. It's easier on everyone if there is a continuous flow of Medical Explorer volunteers. It's easier on the office that has opened their doors to us. They get used to having us around. As they become accustomed to our Medical Explorers, more things can become part of the volunteer experience.
It's a much better partnership if we can keep a Medical Explorer in line to assume the volunteer opportunity as soon as it becomes available. Thus, 80 to 100 members allows us to maintain a large number of volunteer opportunities for our membership to choose from.
Another benefit is that as the office become more comfortable with the Medical Explorer skills, we're sometimes surprised that the office employs the Medical Explorer volunteer as a Medical Assistant, scribe, or other office help. Yes, it has happened! Medical Explorers have a unique set of skills. Sometimes the volunteer opportunity turns into a job offer.
We need your support to make our Omega Leo Medical Explorers the model organization it should be. We want to be an exemplary organization that will be noticed by other universities. We've got the potential, we just need your help to push us to national recognition.
Dr. Supple had a vision in 1991 for this organization to be a “pride” of the university. We've built the foundation. Come and help build the house - The Medical Explorer House.
We promise to find a small job that will help you get acquainted with all we do, and our potential to serve Texas State students with something that is not available at any other university.
First- Please know that our Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 is not a typical “student organization.”
Second - Our members have real patient responsibilities and the training to provide hands-on patient contact, such as the EMS support requested for large community events like university football games.
Third - While we have significant community and campus responsibities, we have the full range of volunteer opportunities from non-medical to medical (those with higher level skill requirements).
Fourth - Frequently we're serving in these volunteer opportunities (those requiring the higher level skills) under the authority of Hays County Community Emergency Response Team. Other times we may be helping in a relatively low level skill opportunity such as a Diabetic or Blood Pressure Clinic at the request of an organization like an area Lions Club. At other times, we may be providing simple first-aid service and would fall under the Texas Good Samaritan Laws. In any case, our members are well trained and qualified to provide the services we offer.
Fifth - Both the Lions Clubs International and Scouting America provide strong liability insurance to cover the organization and members in our first-aid type activities.
Sixth - We have had our training program and limited “Scope of Practice” examined by physicians and nurses, and have followed their recommendations to adjust our first-aid delivery where necesary. For example, we have medical oxygen available and are limited to providing oxygen at a very low flow rate and only by nasal cannula. This is a precaution in case of patients with COPD who could have their breathing reduced if given at too high an oxygen delivery rate.
Seventh - Our Medical Explorers is a fully certified CPR/First-Aid Training Center and teach certification courses (yes, our student members can become certified CPR instructors) throughout Central Texas. As a training cneter, we teach some higher level First-aid courses and teach recertification classes for health professionals in Basic Life Support - the first professional level CPR course needed for renewal of their professional license.
So, we like to think of ourselves as a “Volunteer Medical Organization." We work along-side of EMS in many events and their leadership is familiar with the skill level of our members. Frequently, our Medical Explorers are carrying radios to call EMS for anything other than simple band-aids.
We strongly encourage Medical Explores to continue their training and become Texas Certified EMT-Basics. Some of our advanced memebrs are EMT-Basics already. We even have a Texas State endowed scholarship in place to help Medical Explorers become EMTs.
We like to think that we “Add Value” to the student's academic program, giving them a broad perspective on the U.S. healthcare system before they progress into a formal academic program of advanced medical education.
We know our university has a variety of student organizations focused on health. We aspire to serve as a valuable option for your students. We know we may not be the best choice for everyone; we have demands far beyond typical student organizations - demands of time and effort.
We were created by President Supple in 1991 with the expressed purpose of providing “HIS" students with opportunities not available at other universities, opportunities that would help them better undertand the complex U.S. healthcare system and alternative careers they might not have taught about.
To get the most from membership in our Medical Explorers, the student will need to be disciplined and have time to complete our required classes. We don't mind if they are slow in completing the training, but to get the greatest value from our volunteer program, they must meet our training requirements and get into the volunteer activities. It's our expereince that the quicker the new member gets to the “serious opportunities," the better the chance of them continuing. If focused, they can be active volunteers in their first semester. It's a matter of Safety - safety for the student and safety for the patients we serve. Dr. Supple told us that “Safety” was our job number one! We intend to make him proud.
We know we can't take everyone into this organization. We don't have the personnel to manage that large an organization. But we can take many more than we currently have. in fact, our program becomes more valuable with 2 to 3 times the number of members we currently have. More volunteer opportunities can be opened. (See the note in the student section above.) We like anyone who may want to work in healthcare or biomedical technology as a career - clinical and non-clinical. We even have volunteer placements for engineers and computer science majors. There are many nonclinical academic majors that may have some students preparing for a career in healthcare. We have opportunities for those students that your advisors may not have the contacts or resources to provide. We do.
We value our relationship with all academic advisors and appreciate any opportunity to visit and share more about the Omega Leo Medical Explorer program. We're not the typical student organization; we're a “volunteer medical organization” that operates as a career and healthcare industry awareness program.
Contact us anytime. We'll visit with you individually or with a group of students. We love to talk about our Omega Leo Medical Explorers.
We need you too! The whole premise of our Omega Leo Medical Explorers is that we are a partnership between the university and our community providers. We can't be what we want to be without your help. We hope that you will agree that we're the New Way of preparing future health professionals. We've preserved what was best from the Old Way - Shadowing. But, we've addressed the concerns created by the changes in how the U.S. healthcare system operates today. We'll gladly share our solutions to YOUR concerns. We'll meet all your concerns!
If you want to help shape and guide your future co-workers, this is the place to do that. Contact us please. We promise to not make your time contribution excessive. There are all levels of help, from being a speaker, to opening your practice to our vetted and selected volunteers, to actively helping on a more frequent basis.
Be a part of the New Way of preparing future health professionals.
There is a lot of information on this website by design. It has a dual responsibility to tell our Omega Leo Medical Explorer story externally to the world; while at the same time, telling our story internally to university students, faculty, and staff. Our Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 is the only such unit nationally that does what we do. Thus, we need to share our story outside of our university. In many ways, we're the model for other universities.
If you're a student who already knows this information, please skip to the section you need by using the drop-down tab menus above. Otherwise, you may be interested in the information that follows. Whatever your need, please feel free to contact us for more information. Our contact information is in the footer section below.
Everyone following this website should know that our Medical Explorers takes a very broad view of healthcare and biomedical technology. Our program "Adds Value" to any academic program where the student is considering a career in either the clinical side of medicine, the direct support of providers or patients, or the medical industry as a whole through biomedical technology. We especially like to have the non-clinical student join us.
Our Omega Leo Medical Explore Post 4077 is a Program Organization under the Texas State University College of Science and Engineering. It was created by President Supple in 1991, and is a unique collaboration between Texas State University, Scouting America, and Lions Clubs International, plus our many affiliated organizations. We could not do what we do without the support and collaboration of these external organizations. Together we're preparing students in a NEW WAY for the future of medicine.
Our Medical Explorer program preserves what's best from traditional ways of preparing health professionals while meeting the challenges of today's medical environment. This task is not easy, but we believe we've found a way to help students discover their niche, their place, as productive and passionate future health professionals while considering the obstacles and changes to the U.S. healthcare system. Health professionals who are concerned about HIPAA, among many other topics; you should know that Medical Explorers get 2 ½ hours of training in their responsibilities related to HIPAA - much more than hospital new employees. And then, there are all the other Required classes they must complete before we deploy them as volunteers or observers.
We have a responsibility to share what we have discovered in our 35 plus years of existence. Our Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 is a New Way of preparing future health professionals. It addresses many of the changes the U.S. healthcare system has undergone in recent years, and yet strives to preserve many of the traditions that helped generations of health professionals find their career in a complex system. We're hopeful that all our Medical Explorer students will have long and rewarding careers with the “Passion” we see in our many dedicated health professional friends and partners today.
We humbly submit that we have not solved all the challenges before us, but we believe we're on the right track. We know a few weaknesses still in our model, and we're working to eliminate those as quickly as we can. We'll be addressing those weaknesses as we implement our solutions and share them on this website. We look forward to others joining us and helping better define this New Way. It would be great to have another program like us to share experiences and problem solutions.
Created in 1991 by President Jerry Supple, the Texas State Omega Leo Medical Explorer Post 4077 is a unique, one-of-a-kind program for pre-health and biomedical technology students.
Dr. Supple's instruction, “Create opportunities for “MY” students that are innovative, and introduce them to alternative health and biomedical careers. Make it safe, exciting, and fun; and not available anywhere else."
Our Medical Explorer program is a structured program of training followed by serious hands-on responsibilities where students work alongside health professionals.
We have a more extensive discussion of our new way and why it is needed further into this website.
Essentially, we've moved some of the skill training from the first year of professional education to the undergraduate volunteer level.
It's our training that enables the hands-on responsibilities. It's our hands-on responsibilities that enable better decision making by the student about their future career.
Our Medical Explorer program is a more efficient and effective system to prepare future health professionals in today's medical environment.
