SLU AT Student Gets Hands-on Experience in Professional Baseball with the Schaumburg Boomers

SLU AT Summer Field Experience Spotlight - Schaumburg Boomers Baseball Club

By: Rory Cusack (SLU MAT Class of 2019)

This summer I have the amazing opportunity to be with the Schaumburg Boomers, a minor league baseball team in the Frontier League. My preceptor, Mylie Leatherman ATC, has been teaching me so much since the first day and she helps my clinical skills grow every day. This has been a great experience especially since I have not had an opportunity to be with baseball before. 

The team has games 6 days a week, so it’s game day every day. Before each game, the players come for treatment where we provide rehabilitation and pre-game treatment to get them ready for batting practice. So far, I have seen many different injuries from post-surgical to wound care. During rehab, the players perform functional exercises and we work to get them back to full strength as soon as possible due to the amount of games each week. I am getting a lot of experience with rehab and am learning more and more exercises with each new injury. The players are motivated to get better and come prepared each day for rehab and for the game. 

This summer has been so fun so far with the Schaumburg Boomers and Mylie, and I look forward to what the rest of the summer has for me. 

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.

SLU AT Students and Faculty Team Up at Nike Basketball Camp

Saint Louis University's Simon Recreation Center serves as the host site for one of the nation's top basketball events each June.  

Nike invites some of the country's top high school freshmen and sophomore basketball players to the Elite 100 Basketball Camp to help them develop their skills on and off the court.  Many of the top players currently in the NBA participated in this event over the years.

Once again this year, on June 7-10, 2018, SLU Athletic Training Program faculty and students worked side by side to provide medical care for the camp.  

This provides a great clinical connection for our program, and has emerged into a tradition and gives them a common experience over the years.

We appreciate this opportunity each year to empower our students in a fun and exciting clinical environment.

SLU AT Students Get a Diverse and Dynamic Learning Environment with Billiken Athletics

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Saint Louis University
By: Erin Fabbri, Rory Cusack, Grant Hollander, Matt Murphy, Adam Long, and Dimitri Kilian (SLU MAT Class of 2019), Donielle Francis, Ryan Dale and Pat O’Neill (SLU MAT Class of 2018)

The Saint Louis University Department of Athletics provides a wonderful clinical experience for all of us!

Currently three 2nd year (PY2) students and six 1st year (PY1) students with the Billikens and we have been given the opportunity to get experience with multiple Division 1 sports teams during their winter and spring seasons. Our preceptors are: Jonathan Burch, ATC, Ben Heimos, ATC, Lizzy Kienstra, ATC, Petra Knight ATC and Tammy Pastor ATC.  They have allowed each of us to have very unique clinical experiences and has exposed us to a diverse group of athletes and other health professionals.

As PY2s, we have enjoyed two wonderful semesters a SLU, which has been great for our development as future athletic trainers. We have learned so much from our respective preceptors and they have done a great job of preparing us for the real world. Our preceptors have helped us and allowed us to develop our skill set and gain more confidence by increasing our responsibilities and allowing us to learn through hands-on experience. We have also enjoyed getting a chance to interact and help mentor the PY1s. We know and understand exactly what they are going through, so we welcome the opportunity to help them grow.

As PY1s, we cover basketball, baseball, swimming and diving, and track and field. We have learned more about rehab, modalities and how to work with other athletic trainers. At this clinical site we have been exposed to more resources such as laser therapy, SwimEx, AlterG and Normatec, which can improve and expand our skill set. We have the opportunity to develop better relationships with the athletes by being able to see them daily. We have had a great experience thus far by both the preceptors and PY2s helping us build a better understanding of athletic training.

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.

SLU AT Students Give Roosevelt HS Students a Day with the Billikens

Roosevelt High School Athletic Training Club

By: Cat Chua, Rory Cusack and Paul Lamb (SLU MAT Class of 2019)

On January 23rd, we took the Roosevelt High School (RHS) Athletic Training Club for a field trip to Saint Louis University (SLU). This club, sponsored by the Saint Louis University Athletic Training Program and funded through an Ethnic Diversity Enhancement Grant from the National Athletic Trainers' Association Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee is designed to nurture interest in athletic training and the health professions for students at RHS.  Kemba Noel-London MAT, ATC CES coordinates the RHS AT Club along with student mentors from the SLU AT Program.

First, we took the students on a tour of the SLU athletic training room. They learned about different modalities and treatments performed in the room. They also got to meet one of the basketball players. After the tour of the training room, the students went onto the basketball court to take some pictures before the game. Then we went to Grand Hall to eat dinner. We showed videos of injuries to the students and had conversations about what an athletic trainer does in those situations. Before going to the basketball game, the students got a tour of the Simon Rec Center. At the game, the high school students got to sit in the student section where they cheered along with the rest of the SLU students and fans, received cheer items from the people leading the student section, and even met the Billiken! The basketball game field trip was a great success and so much fun for all of us.

The students were able to experience the athletic training from from an athlete’s point of view and were able to ask many questions to both the Athletic Trainer and a few athletes. The students were extremely curious as to how an Division 1 athlete juggles basketball, course work, and social life. They asked how they athlete got their scholarship and how hard they worked in high school. The students then were asking us what our thoughts on how they can get to be like those D1 athletes, or the process of walking on to a team. The students from Roosevelt are all athletes themselves, and know what hard work it takes to stay on a team and be successful. As Athletic Training students, it gave us a chance to answer questions that we normally wouldn’t get in an athletic training facility, but from high school students that are genuinely interested in what it takes to be a healthcare professional or an athlete and what life is like in college. 

Moving forward in the semester, we plan on further exposing the students to the different roles and providers on a sports medicine health care team. Over the next few meetings, the students will have the opportunity to learn more about sports performance and how athletes prepare for a game through a discussion on eating like an athlete as well as preparing for a game through a presentation on training like an athlete. An additional field trip to the SLU Anatomy Lab will be an excellent chance for club members to understand topics we’ve discussed during club meetings in a more hands-on setting. Our goal at the beginning of the year was to get the high schoolers engaged in sports medicine, and present them with opportunities to see the many ways in which it can impact their lives and the lives of the people around them. Our field trip to the SLU basketball game helped advance that goal, and with so many exciting topics ahead of us, it’s hard not to be enthusiastic about what we’ll accomplish the rest of the year with the Roosevelt High School Athletic Training club!

SLU AT Students Conduct Workshop on Sports Medicine Skills for 2nd Year Medical Students

Athletic Training Sports Medicine Night with SLU 2nd Year Medical Students

By: Bridget Bushong (SLU MAT Class of 2018)

The Saint Louis University Athletic Training Society hosted a sports medicine night with second year medical students who have an interest in sports medicine. This workshop had three stations, run by Professional Year 2 (PY2) and 1 (PY1) students in the AT program, for the students to rotate through during the event. The stations included concussion testing, ankle taping and emergency spine boarding. While the PY2s were the group leaders, there were also several PY1s assisting during the sessions as well as undergraduate students who were models for taping and spine boarding.

This event is a great way to collaborate with other medical professionals and increase patient care by having an interprofessional team assisting with the care. While ATs are specifically trained to diagnosis, treat and manage concussions, apply assistive taping and handle emergency spine boarding situations it is important for other medical professionals to understand and be able to assist if necessary. The 2nd year medical students had great questions during each session that showed they were extremely interested in the sports medicine field. 

Overall this event was a huge success for spreading knowledge about the athletic training profession and building interprofessional teamwork. The group leaders for the concussion session were Killian Hollo, Adam Long and Paul Lamb. Group leaders for the taping session were Madeleine Bresnahan, Erin Fabbri and Rory Cusack. Taping Models were Claire Ditman and Cheyenne Meinershagen. The group leaders for the spine boarding were Bridget Bushong, Jenna Ginsberg and Ben Wildman, models included Mitchell Buerck and Allison Stefan.

A big thank you to all of those who participated in the event!

SLU AT Students See Their Skills Progressing with the Busy Pace at Affton HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Affton High School

By: Rory Cusack and Chase Long (SLU MAT Class of 2019)

At Affton High School, with our preceptor Becky Stigen ATC, we have been learning so much so fast!

Within the last 2 months, we have experienced many different types of injuries and have observed different sporting events at each level such as soccer, football, cross country, and more.

Within the last month, we have dealt with several situations in which we have had to send athletes to the hospital, for example, head laceration, fracture dislocation in the ankle, broken nose, and much more. As the semester as progressed, we have improved on our taping and evaluation skills. We are finally able to do real evaluations on the ankle and help figure out rehabilitation programs to help the athletes return to play.

Being at Affton is a great experience for us and we have been enjoying every minute of it. There is never a dull moment and we are continuously learning more and expanding our skill set.

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.

SLU Pre-professional Student Excited for Next Step after Interacting with First Year AT Student and Preceptor

New AT Student Blog Post - Rory Cusack (SLU MAT Class of 2019)

Majority of my direct observation (DO) hours were at Missouri Baptist University with the lacrosse team. It was such a great and interesting experience! My first time during DO hours I was very impressed with the PY1 student Ben Wildman by how much he knew and how he was helping the athletes. It made me extremely excited for the professional phase of the AT program.

The preceptor Jamie Herron, MS, ATC, also was so great with the athletes too and genuinely cared about the athletes and the team’s success. I attended one of their games and it was so exciting to see the team doing well and seeing how much their athletic trainer cared for them. One of the athletes had torn his ACL last year and was still doing rehab. From the beginning of the semester to the middle and end, he had so much more strength and it was really cool to see this transformation. Another athlete had gotten a knee to the calf and had a really cool and unique bruise all down his calf. DO hours has been such a great experience and I got to see such cool stuff. 

This is one of a series of blog posts written by students entering the professional phase of the SLU AT Program as a part of MAT 3000 - AT Student Development II.