SLU AT Students Enjoy Summer Clinical Experience with the Billikens

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Saint Louis University Billiken Athletics

By: Maddie Bozych and Kaylla Juarez (MAT Class of 2021)

Saint Louis University Athletic Training Students have made adjustments to the changing conditions during the Summer of 2020.  Maddie Bozych and Kaylla Juarez discuss their common, but separate and socially distanced, immersive clinical experience with SLU Billiken Athletics.

Maddie Bozych 

I had a great summer experience getting to be involved with the SLU Men’s basketball team! While it was a different type of summer, it was just as interesting! I got to learn from Jonathan Burch, ATC, who not only has great expertise on being a Division 1 basketball athletic trainer, but also as the director of sports medicine. It was a great experience to see all the conversations that went into making a safe summer for the basketball team among a pandemic. Some of the Covid precautions I was a part of were figuring out how to reconfigure the athletic training room to make it as safe and distances as a possible, and taking temperatures. 

My daily routine consisted of getting all the supplies ready for weight training, and once we progressed to practices, taping. Once the players were taken care of, I got a look into all of the paperwork it is important for athletes to have at the start of every year, and practice logging it into the software.  

Aside from seeing some of the behind the scenes of what a director of sports medicine and AT does during a pandemic, I did get to do some rehabbing! I was fortune to also get to learn from Mike Markee, PT, DPT, OCS, COMT, ATC and be a part of the post-op rehabs of one of our athletes. It was great interprofessional experience as I got to go to physical therapy session and learn the exercises, and then take the athlete through them on off days. Having this bridge role was a great experience for a PY2. I learned a lot in a short time! 

Kaylla Juarez

This summer I was able to get clinical experience with SLU’s Men’s Basketball team with my preceptor Jonathan Burch ATC (JB), Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Medicine.  During my time at SLU, I was able to get back into practicing taping skills that I have not been able to do in a few months.  I was able to learn new taping skills through JB and get a better understanding of why we tape our basketball players the way we do.  

I also got to look at the administration side of athletic training that I did not get a lot of experience with at my other clinical sites.  With us still being in a pandemic, there was a lot of paperwork that had to be done before the rest of the student athletes returned back to campus. It was nice to understand all aspects of athletic training and administration work is something I often forget comes along with this career. SLU will be my clinical site for the 2020-2021 school year, and I am excited to see what else I can learn from my preceptor JB and other preceptors I come across in the SLU athletic training room. 

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