February 04, 2015

SLU AT Students Practice Teamwork and Advocate for the Profession at Interprofessional Team Seminar

Interprofessional Team Seminar (IPTS)
By: Kayla Kelley (SLU MAT Class of 2015)

My athletic training classmates and I recently had the opportunity to participate in an Interprofessional Team Seminar (IPTS). During this seminar, designed for post-baccalaureate students by SLU's Center for Interprofessional Education and Research, we presented the profession of athletic training to a variety of other health professions students in physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), social work (SW), nursing, pharmacy, medicine, and physician assistant (PA). We had the opportunity to explain to other students in the health professions about what athletic trainers do and what kind of professional preparation we receive. We also answered any questions they had regarding our scope of practice. The second part of our involvement in this seminar gave us the opportunity to discuss a real case. This real case was taken from Tommy Mallon's story featured on the video at injuredathletes.org. Each profession talked about how they would handle the situation including any best practice guidelines regarding the care of this injured athlete.


Participating in this seminar was important to us because our profession is often misunderstood. Therefore, it is our responsibility to educate others in order to gain the recognition and respect we deserve as health professionals. Additionally, the main objective of the seminar was to teach us how to effectively communicate with one another as members of a patient-centered health care team. Collaborating together as an efficient team can make all the difference in the quality of care the patient receives. It is our job to ensure the highest level of care through our correspondences with each other and the decisions we make in the best interest of the patient.

In just a few months, we will be certified and practicing on our own. This seminar has prepared us to be active members of the healthcare team. It has also given us a greater appreciation for the other health professions and their respective scopes of practice. Through this experience we have also become more confident in our ability to teach others about the athletic training profession, looking forward to and even encouraging this discussion.

Athletic trainers—we do more than just tape ankles, we save lives.

To learn more about the SLU Center for Interprofessional Education and Research go to: ipe.slu.edu.

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