November 09, 2015

Culture of Success and Respect Gives SLU AT Students a Great Experience at CBC



SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Christian Brothers College High School
By: CJ Spink (SLU MAT Class of 2016) and Stephanie Ross (SLU MAT Class of 2017)

Our clinical rotation at Christian Brothers College High School has provided us with an abundance of learning opportunities. Kristen Jeans ATC, our preceptor at CBC employed through Mercy Sports Medicine, allows us to learn with an incredible amount of autonomy when treating athletes. She gives us the freedom to evaluate any and all injuries that we feel comfortable with and allows us to make return to play decisions as we see fit. This type of learning forces us to practice making decisions that we will make as future athletic trainers.

Working side by side with another student in the other professional year has been helpful in strengthening our learning experiences. We are able to review information from the PY1 year that Stephanie is currently learning, which allows for a better chance to grasp information from class while providing a great opportunity to review the same information that is likely to be on the BOC exam. The constant conversation that occurs during evaluations requires us to explain the purpose behind our actions, which forces us to understand the exact reason as to why we are doing what we are doing. 

The athletic environment at CBC is one of the most elite that you will find in high school sports. Every one of the sports teams is consistently competing for top rankings in the state for their respected sports. With the winningest soccer coach in high school history and a football team who has been undefeated for the past two seasons, both teams look to repeat as state champions. This speaks volumes towards the skill level of the athletes that we work with on a daily basis. 

As entertaining as the athletes are to watch on the field, the athletic environment isn’t the only reason CBC is a great clinical site. Every person in the building has accepted us into the community as if we have been doing our clinical rotations there for years. All of the coaches respect and appreciate our knowledge and commonly communicate with us regarding athletes that we work with individually as if we were already certified athletic trainers. We couldn’t have asked for a better athletic program, preceptor, and clinical site to help us develop into future athletic trainers. 

This is one of a series of posts by the Saint Louis University Athletic Training students featuring their clinical site and their preceptors. The number, quality and diversity of clinical instruction are major assets for the SLU AT Program.

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