Collin College Respiratory Care Students Win First Place at National Sputum Bowl Championship

Collin College Respiratory Care students Jason Shim, Kimball Wiser, and Arian Saber took first place at the National Sputum Bowl championship in Nashville, Tennessee, at the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) Congress. Competing against 20 teams from across the nation this year, the award marks Collin’s second national title, after securing the first in 2017.

Organized in a quiz show format, Sputum Bowl is a respiratory care knowledge competition to test student and practitioner knowledge on subjects including anatomy and physiology, diagnostics, pathology, mechanical ventilation, neonatal/pediatric care, airway management, pharmacology and more. Two teams of three face off in 10-minute games trying to buzz in with the correct answers before the other.

The recruitment for this competition starts during program orientation. Interested students practice once a week playing mock games led by coach and faculty member Chad Essary. Collin College also has a strong history in the Texas Sputum Bowl, a state-level qualifier for nationals, taking first place from 2012 through 2019, and once again in 2023.

“After winning at the state level, I was eager to ensure my team was prepared,” Wiser said. “I spent nearly 10 hours creating and reorganizing notecards from the material provided by our program director, Julie Boganwright. At the end, I looked back at how many notecards I reviewed, and it was a whopping 12,000 since I started making the cards!”

According to Boganwright, at the national level, the competition is impressive and overall demanding. All the competitors are well-prepared and equipped with respiratory care knowledge.

“The Sputum Bowl is a really fun way for students to learn and test what’s being reviewed in the classroom as they progress through the respiratory care program,” Boganwright said. “Students take this seriously, and it’s an intense game to watch. Sometimes it just comes down to who can buzz in quicker.”

This year, Aerogen, a company that specializes in respiratory care technology, and a Sputum Bowl sponsor, will be taking the winning team to Ireland to tour their facility.

“The Sputum Bowl experience proved that with dedication and passion anything can be achieved,” Wiser said. “I absolutely love the profession and this program. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!”

Collin College serves more than 58,000 credit and continuing education students annually and offers more than 200 degrees and certificates, including a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), a Bachelor of Applied Technology (BAT) in Cybersecurity, a Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Construction Management, and a new Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Clinical Operations Management. The only public college based in Collin County, Collin College is a partner to business, government, and industry, providing customized training and workforce development. For more information, visit www.collin.edu.