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AT course spotlight

ATRN 7250: Rehabilitation Considerations for Sport Performance

Rehabilitation Considerations for Sport Performance provides ATs with advanced knowledge on how to bridge the gap from rehabilitation to sport performance. Taught by Sue Falsone PT, DPT, MS, SCS, ATC, CSCS*D, COMT, RYT, and referencing the textbook, Bridging the Gap from Rehab to Performance, written by Dr. Falsone, the course lays out an organizational system for treating an athlete from rehab back to performance. This course can be taken as part of the Master of Science in Athletic Training program, Doctor of Athletic Training program, and Graduate Certificate in Rehabilitation. Notably, it allows for the individuality of the clinician. Dr. Falsone says, “What we do is an art based on science. It allows the clinician to still be an artist, but provides them organization and science to back up what they’re doing each step of the process.”

The course covers neuromuscular considerations such as psychomotor and somatosensory control, in addition to considerations for strength training, time under tension, power development and athletic movement prescription.

“Learned a good amount of advanced rehab techniques as well as proper assessment and progression and I improved rehab knowledge. I loved the videos, projects, and the feedback we were able to give to each other.” – DAT graduate, Amanda H. DAT, ATC, CES, SMTC

Broken into weekly components, material covers identifying the pain generator and discussing the source of someone’s pain, followed by discussion on the cause of someone’s pain. The following sections covers cycle motor control, with in-depth discussion on the brain-body connection. Then the nervous system is covered, including how do to manipulate the nervous system to create an outcome of movement, such as the visual, vestibular, or co-receptive.

“My favorite assignment was creating the movement analysis chart. It made me look deeper into the types of movements each sport does and understand the types of functional movements that need to be incorporated while rehabbing to improve performance.” – DAT student, Americus W. MSAT, LAT, ATC

Then strength and power production are discussed with focus on how to manipulate sets and reps to stimulate a physiological response. Then fundamental movement patterns and understanding patterns to create movement within sport. Lastly, a discussion on the technical aspects of this process, such as how to work with coaches and technical coaches to better understand the game.

“The movement analysis project was my favorite! Essentially, I had to take one skill (I used a basketball layup) and break it down into the essential movements of the skill. This was helpful because it breaks down a play into individual movements that can be trained before training on the skill as a whole. I had a lot of fun on all of the assignments in this course because they were all so immediately applicable!” – DAT graduate, Jesse M. DAT, MS, MEd, LAT, ATC, CSCS

Woven throughout the course is discussion on the different biosocial factors that impacts the individual. Every athlete has a different story, where they are in their career, the rehab process, amount of family support are all things that impact their journey.

“My passion lies with helping athletes from preinjury through postinjury to performance. In the course of 10 weeks, the class takes learners through that process in a very organized way. It really helps the learner fill in the gaps and it highlights areas of strength in the bridging the gap between rehab and performance process, but it also highlights the areas where they need more work or need interprofessional relationships for the betterment of their patient/athlete/human.” – Dr. Sue Falsone, Professor

A lot of information is covered this 10-week course! Through a variety of assignments, including writing or a discussion board, every topic along the way of rehabilitation to performance is covered with allotted time for reflection. Following this course, ATs will be able to develop a comprehensive program for the athlete who is returning to sport post-injury.

“The faculty was a 10/10. Sue and Dr. Hortz are two of the best in the business and their expertise and experiences made the class enjoyable and challenged me to become a better clinician.” – DAT student, Brian B. M.Ed., LAT, ATC

AT course spotlight

ATRN 7340: Assessment and Management of Complex Patients with Concussion

Assessment and Management of Complex Patients with Concussion provides a thorough examination of the treatment of patients with complex medical concerns who suffer a concussion. With specific attention focused on the patient’s past medical history and co-morbid factors, students discover how these may influence the assessment, treatment, and management of head injuries. The course is focused on getting patients active using treatment strategies to assess and manage the concussion to try to get them back to their sport, job, school, even return to military duty in a much more active manner.

“I learned how to evaluate and manage complex concussion cases in ways that immediately helped my clinical practice.” – DAT Student, Maurice I., MS, ATC

As part of the Sport Neurology and Concussion track, students can take this course as a part of Master of Science in Athletic Training program, the Doctor of Athletic Training program, or the Sport Neurology and Concussion certificate program. This course is offered during Spring Block 2, and can be taken from March to May.

Starting off with a broad discussion of the biopsychosocial model of healthcare with respect to concussion and defining the complex patient, this course then focuses on one concussion subtype or clinical profile in one-week intervals. The course discusses an important profile, sleep, managing sleep, and treating sleep issues. This is followed by aerobic exercise and the importance of getting patients active at a sub-symptom threshold level early. Rehabilitation strategies for vision and vestibular deficits are discussed, followed by executive functioning and cognitive therapies. The final weeks of the course address mental health concerns, long-term consequences and medical disqualification, ending with a focus on patient-centered care. The next lecture topic is patient-centered care and how to incorporate that into concussion. A week is also spent on the long-term consequences of concussions and how to make tough decisions, like when to recommend medical disqualification to patients who are either having prolonged recovery or had multiple concussions.

“The information provided each week was relevant and easily transferable to the daily treatments of concussive patients. Each week there were many takeaways which allowed for better overall care of student-athletes. An example would be the week three project, which involved creating a sleep pamphlet. I still have this available to share with our student-athletes.” – DAT Student, Chuck M. MS, ATC

“I loved the public health concern unit. I also felt the project was very useful is combining the course material into a care plan.” – Certificate Graduate, Taeopae W., MS, ATC

Taught by Tamara McLeod, PhD, ATC, FNATA, this course offers up-to-date, evidence-based insight into related areas of complex concussions, such as mental health, public health education, and visual and vestibular rehabilitation. Dr. McLeod states, “I find with this course, every time I teach it, I’m almost restructuring it because the evidence that’s coming out to support some of these treatment modalities changes and so it certainly challenges me as an instructor to stay on top of the literature. You see a lot of lightbulbs go off in the students over the course of the 10 weeks.”

“[After taking this course], we added early active aerobic exercise and visual/vestibular rehabilitation techniques into our concussion protocol, as well as developed a solid return to learn protocol for the district.” – DAT Student, Stephanie T., LAT, ATC