SLU AT Students Experience Team Approach to Athletic Health Care at Washington University

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Washington University Athletics
By: Paul Lamb and Jesse Schmitt (SLU MAT Class of 2019); Maria Lingardo, Courtney Nall and Allison Stefan (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

The 2018 Fall semester has been quite busy for the two 2nd year (PY2) students (Jesse Schmitt and Paul Lamb), and three 1st year (PY1) students (Allison Stefan, Maria Lingardo, and Courtney Nall) at Washington University. While primarily caring for the football team, we have all contributed to treating all athletes at WashU. Our everyday schedule is a mixture of treating athletes using therapeutic modalities, such as laser, game-ready, and underwater treadmill program; as well as an ample amount of taping and preparation before going out to practice. In addition, we help athletes go through their rehab programs.

From day one to now, we have learned how to work together as a team with our preceptors Rick Larsen MS, ATC and Grant Rohrig MAT, ATC. The PY1 students feel comfortable asking questions to the PY2s and the PY2s are always willing to help out the PY1s. We have established mutual trust within our team, and our preceptors have given us more responsibility as weeks go by. One of our favorite parts of the week is when we sit down as a group and discuss injury reports as well as things to improve on from the week before. Team meetings help to ensure everyone is on the same page and that there is not any miscommunication.

At WashU we all get the opportunity to take turns traveling with the football team. Travel trips have provided all of us a great insight to what traveling with a team entails. We have all enjoyed our clinical experience this far at Washington University because we have the opportunities to do things like travel. We all are looking forward to the rest of the semester here and seeing how we keep developing our own skill sets, as well as, how we keep growing as a team.

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.