November 29, 2018

SLU AT Students Appreciate Trust and Support Provided by Preceptors with Billiken Athletics

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Saint Louis University Athletics
By: Juan Calero, Cat Chua, Rory Cusack, Dimitri Kilian, and Matt Murphy (SLU MAT Class of 2019)

There are five SLU AT students in their 2nd Professional Year with SLU Athletics: Juan Calero, Cat Chua, Rory Cusack, Dimitri Kilian, and Matt Murphy. Our preceptors, SLU Billikens Athletic Trainers, Jonathan Burch ATC, Ben Heimos ATC, Petra Knight ATC, Elena Melillo ATC and Angie Wills ATC have been so trusting these last two months by giving us a lot of hands on experience and giving us freedom to make our own choices in regards to treatment. This has been a great experience for all of us since we have been able to take more initiative and the athletes are treating us as an extension of our preceptors.


With all the hands-on opportunities we are given, we are enhancing our skills in manual therapy, rehabilitation, and evaluation skills. The five of us work together on some athletes and bounce ideas off of each other to try to determine the best possible treatment for that athlete. Each of us has all been exposed to a variety of different sports as well which has been helpful in enhancing our skill sets.

Overall, we are all so happy to be here with the Billikens for our clinical site and are looking forward to a great year!

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.

November 28, 2018

SLU AT Student Gets International and Collaborative Clinical Experience at Bishop DuBourg HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Bishop DuBourg High School
By: Rebecca McGrail (MAT Class of 2020) with Patrick Coffey (ARTi Student, AIT)

This semester I began my first clinical rotation experience at Bishop DuBourg High School. I am starting my first year of the professional program for Saint Louis University’s Master of Athletic Training Program. While being at Bishop DuBourg High School, I have had the opportunity to learn new techniques and improve my clinical skills under my preceptor Nathan Jarman ATC, from SSM Health-SLU Hospital Sports Medicine. I am also at this site with Patrick Coffey, who is an Athlone Institute of Technology student from Ireland. Nathan, Patrick, and I are involved with the care of all fall sports which keeps us on our toes. I have felt very welcomed at Bishop DuBourg High School by all of the coaches, staff, athletic director, and especially the student athletes.


During my time at Bishop DuBourg High School I have seem various types of injuries such as: ankle sprains, mid-foot sprains, fractured metatarsals, concussions, and different extremity dislocations. Thankfully, there have not been many serious injuries that prevent the athlete from returning to play, nor have we had to make any EMS calls for life-threatening injuries. It has been very interesting to be with an athletic training student from Ireland because I am able to see different approaches I would not normally be able to observe. I am very grateful for the hands-on experience I have at my clinical site, especially after evaluations when we collaborate to develop the best treatment option and rehabilitation programs for each athlete’s specific needs based on our findings.


Overall, I am having a great first clinical experience and have learned so much in the few months I have been here. I am excited to see what the rest of the semester will hold!

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.

November 27, 2018

SLU AT Student Enjoys Learning and Growth through Clinical Experience at Lindbergh HS


SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Lindbergh High School
By: Rachel Wilhelm (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

Beginning my first professional year in the Athletic Training program at Saint Louis University has led me to the opportunity for my first clinical experience. I am currently set at Lindbergh High School where I am learning under Brenna Pfahler, ATC, LAT. She is a recent graduate of University of Nebraska’s Athletic Training program (Class of 2018) and is currently assigned at Lindbergh HS through her fellowship with AthletiCare.

Brenna and I take care of all sports at Lindbergh. We go in early everyday in order to prep for the rush that comes in as soon as school ends. From there, we see everyone in the AT room from cross country to football and every sport in between. During this time, we do injury evaluations, wound care, taping, and rehab to get them ready, before we head out to the practices and games ourselves. It always keeps us busy, but it is the best time to get to know our athletes and communicate with the coaches.
I have really been enjoying my time at Lindbergh so far. It is amazing to be getting these first hand experiences with the student athletes. I can think back to just two months ago when I first started and see how much I have improved in this short time. The experiences around me have been giving me so many learning opportunities. I have seen and rehabilitated multiple ankle sprains, helped take care of many wounds such as a 6 in. laceration in one of our athlete’s legs, and am currently helping my preceptor oversee two of our football players with AC joint sprains. With so much going on around me, I am trying my best to take everything in.

I can’t wait until the end of the semester when I can look back and see how much I’ve grown through my time at Lindbergh.

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.

November 21, 2018

SLU AT Students Learn the Importance of Organization, Communication and Teamwork at Missouri Baptist University


SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Missouri Baptist University
By: Marissa Burch and Justin Durham (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

As college students, we spend countless hours sitting in a classroom, whether it be for lecture or to study, staring at a computer screen. For most students, there is little to no hands-on experience or training outside the classroom until gaining an internship or a job. As Athletic Training students, on the other hand, we are lucky to be able to have clinical experience during the school year. Getting to break out of the classroom environment to work with athletes and really apply what we have learned has been a great opportunity to further our understanding. It has been beneficial to have face to face interactions with real patients in order to practice new modalities and techniques taught by the Athletic Training staff at Missouri Baptist University. (Preceptor Drew Potter MBA, ATC is pictured above)
We have had several opportunities to observe and participate in different treatment strategies for injured athletes and assist in constructing a rehab program for athletes who have chronic muscle imbalance or tightness. Being able to interact with the athletes, we have the ability to see how well the treatment works, both objectively and subjectively. This is a very interesting aspect of our future profession that we don’t get to address as often in the classroom setting. In class we can measure range of motion (ROM) or girth for our objective results of treatment, however, at our clinical site, we are able to use the athlete’s subjective view to see if he/she feel better after treatments and to see if they feel the treatment is truly effective or not. Having the athletes welcome us so willingly and being so open to letting us practice has really helped us to learn and enhance our skills.

One of the biggest lessons we have learned would be how important organization, communication, and teamwork is within the Athletic Training staff as well as with the athletes, coaches, Athletic Director, and anyone else we encounter. Without those three important ideas, it can become difficult for everyone to be on the same page and understand urgent situations. Planning ahead helps to avoid any gray areas that may arise with miscommunication, whether it be with administration issues or patient injuries and safety. We have to endure some tough decisions, but as an Athletic Trainer, it is important to be firm in our decisions and not let others affect our standard of care.

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.

November 20, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving from the SLU Athletic Training Program!

The Saint Louis University Athletic Training Program wishes you a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

May you use this time to reflect on your blessings...


November 06, 2018

SLU AT Students Benefit from Diverse Experiences with Veteran Preceptor at Webster Groves HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Webster Groves High School
By: Erin Fabbri (SLU MAT Class of 2019), Daire O’Regan (ARTi Student, AIT) and Carmen Roberson (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

This fall semester our clinical site is at Webster Groves High school. We have a good variety of athletic training students with Erin Fabbri as the PY2, Carmen Roberson as the PY1, and Dàire O’Regan from Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland. We have had a busy fall semester thus far with a variety of 9 sports teams.
Our Preceptor, Sean Wright, ATC has been great, allowing each of us hands on experience and trusting our athletic training skills. He is a great teacher and we have learned a lot from him. We have had the ability to enhance our taping, evaluation, rehabilitation, treatment skills and assessments. We also have had lots of exposure to all different types of athletes this season, which allows us to manage many injuries.

We are looking forward to the rest of our semester at Webster Groves and continuing to improve our skills. We have made great relationships with the faculty, coaches, and athletes here and have truly enjoyed our clinical experience thus far at Webster Groves. We know that our experience here will push us forward and give us what we need to continue to learn more within our profession.

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.