So you're an athletic trainer...what's that?

One of the first questions when you meet a new person is "So, what do you do?" and most people's answers don't need explaining. Doctor, teacher, accountant, etc...not so much for me. Usually people just nod their head and say "oh, that's cool," or "really, oh" and carry on without really knowing what I do or thinking what I do has to do with personal training or being a school nurse. Even my own grandmother once said, "I picture you in the gym with a towel around your neck." So, with the official start of football practice less than 10 days away, I thought this would be a great time to fill people in on what I do for a living.  

I am an athletic trainer. I start the explanation by telling people I am somewhat of a combination of an EMT, physical therapist and personal trainer. My skills range from injury prevention, evaluation and rehabilitation to CPR and first aid to planning conditioning sessions. I am able to treat chronic, acute and emergency injuries. This means I can help you if its been hurting for awhile (long term knee pain like tendonitis,) if it just happened (an ankle sprain) or if it is very serious (a broken arm). I am taught how to properly rehabilitate injuries and return athletes to play after injury or surgery but my job doesn't always mean treating the injury myself but referring on to the best person to treat it (calling 911 or referring to and orthopedic.) I also help with injury prevention by helping fit equipment like shoulder pads or fitting someone for a brace. Injury prevention also means monitoring the weather to prevent heat illness or lightning injuries. I can help the coaches develop conditioning programs for both in season and out of season. This list could go on and on to include things such as nutritionist, therapist, mom, but I think I've given you a pretty good idea of what I, and other athletic trainers, do. 

My job is at a high school through a physical therapy clinic. I spend every afternoon/evening at the high school attending all practices and games that every team has. Twice a week I am in the physical therapy clinic helping with injury rehabilitation in that setting. I love my job because I never know what each day will bring and that is because my job requires me to fill so many different roles. I am always teaching the high school athletes (and sometimes coaches) about hydration, nutrition and their injuries. Some days go on without incident and some days I am calling an ambulance. Sometimes I am simply an ear for a student having a bad day, week, month or season. I give advice on many things, even when not asked, and learn many things from my athletes as well. There was a time when I thought that I would never want to work in high school, but now I love it and look forward to spending many years in this setting. 

During the summer my role changes a little and I am in the clinic more often and also have the chance to co-direct a high school sports medicine camp. We have done it for two years now and had a lot of success. We spend the week teaching the campers about what we do and try to make it as hands on as possible. We tape and teach about rehabilitation along with teaching basic evaluation skills. We also like to get doctors and physical therapists from the area involved. It has been a really fun week the past two summers and I also look forward to doing that for a long while. 

Currently they are working on a new gym and athletic facility at my high school. This is very exciting and should bring me many more opportunities. Right now I am not able to do as much rehabilitation at my high school as I would like due to lack of space, but with a new athletic training room hopefully that will change. 

I hope this gave you a little insight into what I do and I look forward to telling you more about my teams and the new gym! Thanks for reading! 

-Kate Meyer