Posted by Tony Traina, University News Sports Writer
Katie Schneebeck has always dreamed of working with Olympic
athletes. As a student in SLU’s athletic training program, she’s on her way to
doing just that.
The athletic training program at SLU is a five-year program,
accredited by the Commission for Accreditation of Athletic Training Education
(CAATE), which is in charge of curriculum and accreditation across the nation.
SLU’s program, housed in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, became
accredited in 2010, making it one of more than 350 programs recognized by the
CAATE. However, it is just one of 27 programs defined as an entry-level
master’s program.
Now in her second year of the two-year professional program,
Schneebeck was accepted to the program after earning a degree in integrative
physiology from the University of Colorado. She has held internships at
Washington University in St. Louis and NutriFormance, and is currently at
Affton High School.
Working with patients young and old has given her “a whole
new perspective on rehabilitation at every age,” Schneebeck said.
“What’s very unique about the way athletic training educates
its students is that you are in clinicals at the same time you are in class. Our
students are experiencing things in the afternoon that they may be talking
about in class the next morning,” program director Tony Breitbach said.
Faculty and students work together to customize the program
to each individual, tailoring it to where they envision themselves working when
they graduate.
“For example, [Schneebeck] wanted to be somewhere smaller,
where she could take on a lot of responsibility,” Breitbach said.
The program is professional in nature, building clinical
principles on a liberal arts education. It is designed so that students can
enter as freshmen and complete the program in five years. After their third
year, they enter the professional phase of the program. Students can earn a
Bachelor of Science in exercise science after their fourth year of studies.
Upon completing the fifth and final year of study, students are awarded the
Master of Athletic Training. While mostly made up of freshmen who are directly
admitted into the program, transfer students already holding a degree may apply
for the professional phase of the program.
Mark Reinking, the physical therapy program director, began
the athletic training program as a project for his doctoral thesis. The goal of
the program is to train students to become competent practitioners by educating
them in the classroom and providing them unique clinical experiences.
“Having athletic training in a Jesuit university is a great
fit. It’s a service-oriented profession,” Breitbach said.
The program has graduated 16 students to date, but will graduate
its first class of 15 students who entered the program as freshmen this spring.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that job growth for
athletic training is expected to be “much faster than average” over the next
ten years, “as people become more aware of sports-related injuries at a young
age.”
“We can’t just leave our kids at the high schools with no
help…there needs to be somebody there taking care of these kids in high school,
especially as there is more awareness about the danger of concussions,”
Breitbach said.
In addition to this traditional setting, new niches have
also developed for athletic trainers in the entertainment industry and in
industrial settings.
“The newest places athletic trainers have been seen is
within the entertainment industry, ballet, the Blue Man Group, and on tours
with major performers,” Schneebeck said.
“One of our graduates works for Boeing in Washington, which
is actually the largest employer of athletic trainers in Washington,” Breitbach
said, highlighting the need for athletic trainers in the industrial setting as
companies realize they lose less time and have less injuries by hiring these
professionals.
Finally, as the United States continues to experience
increasing health care costs, athletic trainers have been called upon as
“physician extenders,” bringing their unique set of skills into the orthopedic
setting.
“Athletic trainers are very good at managing injuries in
time frames they don’t choose. If somebody gets injured on Wednesday night,
they’re going to want to play Saturday,” Breitbach said. This ability to wear
multiple hats makes athletic trainers well equipped to assist physicians in the
multiple roles often needed during procedures.
“Our classes provide a ton of hands on learning,” Schneebeck
said.
SLU’s program looks to prepare students for this vast and
changing landscape by exposing them to clinical rotations throughout the
professional phase of their program as well as hands-on in-class experience.
“We have a clinical simulation lab with mannequins that
bleed, blink, their eyes dilate, and they have a pulse,” Schneebeck said.
“It takes a different kind of person to succeed in this
niche. Often many athletic training careers require a great deal of time
commitment. Some get burnout and some really shine in this profession,”
Breitbach said.
The Athletic Training program is a unique and burgeoning
program, still evolving to meet the needs of an ever-expanding healthcare
industry. Most importantly, the program is a bastion of the Jesuits’ commitment
to service.
“I want to take part in the government side of athletic
training and use my experience with Invisible Children to enhance my ability to
positively affect those around me,” Schneebeck said.