HOSA Meeting Ice-Breakers and Team-Building Activities

Although meetings are designed to conduct business, I found that it is always fun to start or end it with a fun activity.  It is a great way to encourage unity and also give your executive council members a chance to lead.  I always pass off the responsibility of running the activity with two people in leadership.  It will help them to gain responsibility as well as practice management skills.

1- GET TO KNOW YOU BINGO: (PDF)

I like doing this one at one of the first meetings because it promotes interaction and networking.  There are 25 boards available to print and hand out.  Simply print out the boards and hand them out to all your members.  You will notice that the spaces have questions in them all related to something medical.  The goal is to find someone who matches that space and then have them write their name in that space. The goal is up to you.  You can simply say anyone with BINGO wins or you could say the person with the most spaces filled in wins.  I always have a time limit and say if no one has BINGO before the time, I just award the person with the most squares!

2- MEET YOUR MATCH: (PDF)

I got this idea from a list of ice-breaker games online but wanted to make it medical.  The goal of this game is to figure out who your “partner” is.  There are 32 cards with medical images to print,cut and hand out.  Students are instructed to only look at their card and not show anyone else. Then, they must go around and find the person whose picture would be a “match” for their picture.  The difficult part of the game is that the matches aren’t always obvious, and sometimes an argument could be made why other matches could work.  However, process of elimination can help.  

3- DOES YOUR MEMORY SERVE YOU RIGHT? (PDF OR PPT/Google Slides versions)

This is a simple game where you show a picture of various medical items and students have 30 seconds to memorize the items.  After the 30 seconds is up, they write down as many of the items as possible.  I have two rounds for this game and the first round I have them play individually.  For the second round, I have them partner up.  A lot of times they will strategize and inevitably do much better as a team.  This can be a great lesson on how team work typically improves a situation, especially in the medical field.  You have two options- show the PowerPoint up on a screen or print out copies for them to flip over and flip back over.

5- GET IT TOGETHER! (PDF)

This another ice-breaker I found online that I modified to be more medical-related.  The goal is simple: create a full skeleton.  For this game you will print out copies of the disarticulated skeleton.  After handing out the papers, I instruct the students that they are not allowed to show anyone their part of the skeleton NOR are they allowed to speak at all.  To win, each team will need to fully create a skeleton without speaking or seeing the other team members papers.  The tricky part is that although they look similar, there are left and right legs and arms.  So, the officials will need to confirm that that the teams have a skull, vertebrae/ribs, pelvis, right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg.  The team that builds their skeleton the fastest wins!

6- AGREE OR DISAGREE? (PDF)

This activity is an adaption to the game “4 CORNERS.”  Basically, students form opinions on statements that are read and then go to the corner that matches their opinion.  There are 4 options: strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree and strongly disagree.  The questions are all on a PDF file to be printed and they are all healthcare related.  Print out the Agree or Disagree Signs and then place them around the room (preferably in four corners).  Have someone read aloud the statement and then students will decide their opinion and then go to the sign that matches.Obviously, there are no winners or losers to this game, but there is an important lesson involved. healthcare is full of controversial issues and it’s not only significant to know where you stand on issues, but it’s more important to recognize and respect that others may disagree.

7- WHO AM I? (Word)

I saw an ice-breaker where students would put “famous people” on their back and try and figure out who there were by asking questions.  So, I decided to do the same but with medical professions!  This activity has 30 various professions in the healthcare industry. I kept this one as a Word document because I have it set up to be printed on 2x4 shipping labels.  This makes it easy to just print and stick!  However, you could simply print them on plain paper and just tape them to their backs as well.  Once students have the career on their backs, they are to walk around ask ONLY ask “yes” or “no” questions in order to determine who they are.  Once they figure it out, they need to keep helping others do the same.

8- FUN WITH WORDS (PDF)

This is a game you can play in many ways.  I have included 68 words that are all related to healthcare.  One option is to play Pictionary with them.  Have a volunteer hold the cards and show another volunteer who draws them on the board.  You can divide the group up into teams and let them play a round or two apiece.  The team with the most guesses wins.  Make sure and put a one-minute time limit on each round and allow one skip per round.  Another option is to play “blind Pictionary.”  This is where students “draw” using their fingers on the backs of their teammate.  I like to do it in rounds where I only have 5 pairs going at once.  You also may need to hand pick the words you think would work best.  All 5 students have the same word, and the partner that guesses it first wins that round.  The last option is to do charades!  This one never fails to be humorous and can involve teams and follow the same rules as Pictionary.  Simply print and cut out the words and these games are ready to go!