July 30, 2013

SLU AT Student Combines Softball and Sports Medicine in Summer Internship


Performance Health Care Summer Internship
By: Jessica Buschjost (MAT Class of 2014)

This summer I spent my time as an athletic training student intern at Performance Health Care in St. Louis, Missouri.  Performance Health Care is an integrated chiropractic and rehabilitation clinic.  I was able to work alongside Dr. Randi Davis and Dr. Wesley Duey, as they allowed me to observe and learn varied treatment, manual therapy, rehabilitation, and performance training techniques

The summer started with most of my time observing in the clinic as Dr. Duey and I were both new to Performance Health Care.  During clinic hours I helped with patient evaluations, treatments, and rehabilitation.  Performance Health Care is conveniently located in the St. Louis Fastpitch and Baseball Academy, and for my other passion I spent hours working in the training facility learning throwing and hitting biomechanics.  Dr. Davis and I would spend most evening hours working with pitchers as we broke their pitching mechanics down using the force plate and other tools to efficiently maximize the outcome of performance.  

SLU AT Student Jessica Buschjost with Dr. Randi Davis.
I was given an extraordinary opportunity during my time at Performance Health Care when I was allowed to work on research that Dr. Davis was completing.  I spent a couple weekends of my summer alongside residents from Washington University collecting data concerning scapular movement patterns, range of motion, and shoulder fatigue before and after games thrown.  Working with the athletes and residents in such a professional and different aspect than what I would normally do in the clinic was an amazing experience.  The research study has been completed and is waiting to be published by the American Journal of Sports Medicine, which is just totally awesome!

My preceptor, Dr. Randi Davis, was a fantastic person to work with. She has endless amounts of knowledge in the field, experience and resources.  Working in a clinic was a different task than the clinical experience that we as students are given the chance to be a part of during the school year, but I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my summer any other way.  I was surrounded by amazing professionals, patients, athletes, parents, and coaches and I am very honored to say that I was a part of Performance Health Care. I cannot wait to use the techniques and skills that I acquired this summer as I begin my last year at Saint Louis University before becoming a future certified athletic trainer.  

Students in the Saint Louis University Athletic Training Program have a required internship in the summer between their two professional years in the program.  This blog post details a student's reflection on their internship experience.

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