Newswise — With the recent opening of Saint Louis University's new Chaifetz Arena, the school will soon roll out a new field of study that will proudly call the arena home: a program in athletic training.
The new discipline " part of SLU's Doisy College of Health Sciences " will use the arena's athletic training facility as a state-of-the-art clinical laboratory for undergraduate and graduate students studying to be athletic trainers.
"Chaifetz Arena will be an extraordinary teaching tool for students in our new athletic training program," said Tony Breitbach, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of athletic training education at SLU. "It's very exciting."
SLU's new athletic training education program is a five-year combined bachelor's and master's program. It will enroll its first students in fall 2008.
The 2,500-square-foot athletic training facility at Chaifetz Arena includes eight treatment stations, three taping stations, one physician exam room, four staff offices, as well as a hydrotherapy pool with a deep-water well and integrated treadmill, and a cold therapy pool that can accommodate up to six athletes at one time.
[For more information on Chaifetz Arena, go to http://www.thechaifetzarena.com.]
"The athletic training facility at Chaifetz is state-of-the-art, and our students will be among the beneficiaries," said Mark Reinking, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the department of physical therapy and athletic training.
Athletic training is a discipline focused on athletic health care, including injury prevention, assessment and management; rehabilitation; and sport-specific conditioning.
"Our new athletic training education program is a perfect addition to the broad variety of health professions housed within Doisy College," Reinking said. "It's something that students here at SLU have been asking for, and it is one of the few entry-level masters programs in athletic training in the country."
The program will start with three full-time faculty members housed in the Doisy College building. Athletic trainers who work with SLU athletes will have offices in the new arena and will serve as clinical instructors for students in the program.
Students who begin as freshmen will spend their first three years completing required liberal arts and science prerequisites. If in good standing, they'll then move into the final two-year professional phase of the program, studying human anatomy and kinesiology, clinical sciences, and the principles of athletic training in depth.
Students will receive a bachelor of science in exercise science at the end of the fourth year, and a master of science in athletic training at the end of the program.
"Athletic trainers serve as the athlete's advocate from a health care standpoint," Breitbach said. "It's a multi-disciplinary profession " we can treat an injury on the field, work with an athlete in rehab, provide counseling and advice, and handle a wide range of administrative duties."
Breitbach said he expects to have about 20 freshmen enrolled in the program the first year, with a smaller group of transfer students entering the professional phase directly.
In addition to using the athletic training facility at Chaifetz Arena as a clinical practice site, students in the new program will train at various sports and fitness facilities in the St. Louis region.
"St. Louis is a terrific city in which to teach athletic training," Breitbach said. "It's a huge sports town, and it has a very large and respected medical community."
Breitbach added that Saint Louis University is also the perfect place to prepare students to be athletic trainers.
"Athletic training is a service-oriented profession, and service to our fellow beings is what the Jesuit tradition is all about," he said.
Long a leader in educating health professionals, Saint Louis University offered its first degree in an allied health profession in 1929. Today the Doisy College of Health Sciences offers degrees in physical therapy, clinical laboratory science, nutrition and dietetics, health informatics and information management, medical imaging and radiation therapeutics, occupational science and occupational therapy, and physician assistant education. he college's unique curriculum prepares students to work with health professionals from all disciplines to ensure the best possible patient care.
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