SLU AT Students Appreciate Preceptor's Support for Clinical Learning at Kirkwood HS

SLU AT Clinical Site Spotlight - Kirkwood High School
By: Allison Stefan and Conner Mongoven (MAT Class of 2020)

As the winter sport season winds down for Kirkwood High School and spring sports are starting up, it has kept the athletic training room busy. We have acquired a ton of new experiences and hands on practice working with the high school athletes of Kirkwood. Our preceptor, Athletico Athletic Trainer Briana Lakebrink ATC, has been nothing but supportive and insightful with our clinical rotation thus far. 

Since we both came from a collegiate setting in the fall primarily covering football, the opportunity to be exposed to multiple sports has been very eye-opening. Boys and girls’ basketball has been the main sporting events we have covered this semester, but we also got to experience wrestling and swimming & diving. The after school rush keeps us busy wrapping ankles, setting up modalities such as e-stim and moist heat packs, and going through exercises/ stretches with athletes.

One amazing aspect of being at Kirkwood High School is having a preceptor so close in age. Briana has been super helpful giving us advice about the post-graduation life and what things she thinks we need to know when we graduate and pass our BOC Exam to succeed in the field. Just getting to have conversations with her and ask questions about her own path to becoming an ATC has taught us more about the real world AT life than we have gotten in the classroom. Part of her methods of having us learn is making us do the initial evaluations of injured athletes and then having her re-evaluate and give us feedback about our assessment. This has facilitated us growing into finding our own systematic approaches of evaluations and assessments. Briana also is very open to new ideas and wants us to bring things we learn in lab/ class into her AT room. 

We are both excited to see what’s in store for the rest of the semester at Kirkwood High School as spring sports pick up.

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 AT Student Gains Confidence Through Directed Observation Experiences

New AT Student Blog Post - Conner Mongoven (SLU MAT Class of 2020)

As a Junior in the SLU AT program, I am getting ready to transition into the professional phase of the program. It is hard to look ahead and know exactly what to expect and what it will be like starting with Gross Anatomy this summer, but throughout MAT 3000 and direct observation hours, I have gotten a much better grasp as to what I will experience these next two years.

I got to experience a lot of different settings in my Directed Observation (DO) hours, including the Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournament at the Scottrade Center, SLU Club Hockey at Webster Groves, SLU Track and Field at the Medical Campus track, and both the Southeastern Conference gymnastics championships and NCAA gymnastics championships at Chaifetz Arena. My favorite experiences were at hockey and gymnastics. I enjoyed the fast pace of hockey and witnessing PY2 student Pat O’Neill and Dr. Timothy Howell discuss their opinions of a shoulder injury of one of the opposing players, and hearing their thoughts of how that team’s athletic trainer was handling the situation and the injury. At gymnastics, which I had never before seen in person, it was cool to see the amount of team morale and crowd support, and the constant cheering as each event took place simultaneously. I got a lot of insight from PY1 students Adam Long and Jazmon Carroll at the SEC Championships about their clinical experiences and what to expect as I move on to the professional phase of the program.

After learning some basic skills in MAT 3000 and doing direct observation hours, I am really excited to begin the next phase of the program and work towards the Master of Athletic Training Degree and AT certification. Hearing from current students above me has given me the confidence to know that no matter how hard anything seems now, that I will be able to excel in the program. I can’t wait to move forward and continue this journey in the SLU AT program.

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.