Tag: UC Davis

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A Day in the Life of A UC Davis Athletic Trainer

Article reposted from The Aggie
Author: Ryan Bugsch

The California Aggie shadowed one of UC Davis football’s athletic trainers

The role of the athletic trainer is one that many people don’t think about when watching their favorite sport. The Aggie had the recent chance to follow Matthew Davey, one of the assistant athletic trainers for the UC Davis men’s football team, to observe what he does every day as a trainer.

The day started at 5:30 a.m. at Aggie Stadium in the athletic training room. Injured players were among the few in the room, stretching out their injuries and getting ready for conditioning training. Then it was down to the field in the cold, windy and rainy weather that felt as if a monsoon were about to overtake the stadium.
Davey dictated different exercises for different players depending on their injuries. Some of the players were designated to run the stadium steps, some to jog around the field and some to do minor exercises in order to ensure they were staying minimally active. At about 7 a.m., it was back inside to dry off and finish the morning. Because the football team is currently in the off-season, the team is limited to two conditioning sessions a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Following the early morning session, The Aggie was able to conduct an email interview and ask Davey about his profession as an athletic trainer and what it entails.

 

What made you want to get into the field of sports medicine?

I have always had an interest in sports medicine, initially in becoming a doctor but I became more aware of the field of athletic training in high school when I met the athletic trainer at my school. When I got to college it didn’t take me long to decide that going to medical school was not something I was interested in. I started the athletic training internship as a 2nd year and I knew that was the field for me. I have the best seat in the house for games that I work and I spend my day working with athletes and around sports. Athletes are willing and able to work very hard at getting better from an injury and at improving their performance, this makes my job much more rewarding because my patient works just as hard as I do at getting better and I can see the immediate fruits of our labor in the athlete’s success on the field.

 

In a nutshell, what are the things your job entails in season and off season?

The majority of my day, both in-season and off-season is committed to rehabilitation of injuries. We have all manner of musculoskeletal injuries from basic ankle sprains to surgically repaired knees and shoulders. Every year we get an injury that we, collectively, have never seen before. That challenge both in evaluation of that injury as well as learning how to properly rehab that injury is one of the parts of my job that I love. Rehab/Prevention accounts for 75% of my time, the rest of the time is on the field covering practice where we are on hand in the event there is an injury either during practice or during a game.

You mentioned some new training programs you put together recently. Could you just briefly say what they are and a brief description about what they do as far as your line of work?

We are always developing new preventive programs geared toward keeping athletes injury free. Currently we are utilizing a yoga-based flexibility and balance program combined with a core strength squat-training program. I have used a lot of yoga and pilates-based exercise programs in the past as preventive programs.

 

Do you also handle administrative work as well as the physical training aspect?

The administrative side of the job takes up a lot of time. Outside of normal day-to-day documentation of injuries and rehab notes I am personally responsible for maintaining our emergency response equipment. As a sports medicine staff we have 8 AEDs located at various sports facilities and in the athletic training rooms. These are located so that no event either practice or game goes on without quick access to an AED should it be needed. It is my responsibility to check all the AEDs on a monthly basis to ensure each is in working order. We also have oxygen tanks, spine boards, blood pressure cuffs and other emergency equipment that I am responsible for maintaining on a regular basis.

Your profession seems one that you put a lot of time into. Is that safe to say?

The role of the athletic trainer in the athletics department is to manage the physical well-being of the student-athlete, and to a certain extent the mental well-being as well. Whether we are handling the care of the student-athlete or ensuring that they are referred to the proper people to handle that care, it is all our responsibility. The players understand this so they will contact us first any time they have a health concern. I have been called at 2am by a player who was in a bike accident on his way home from the library, we’ve been called when a player punched a wall out of frustration late at night. Pretty much any time a player is feeling sick they call us first to see if they should see a doctor — regardless of the time of night.

What are the most rewarding parts about this profession?

By far the most rewarding part of my profession is seeing the athlete I have worked with go through their rehab process, get back on the field and be successful again. After all the time and energy is invested, to see them get back on the field and succeed makes it all worthwhile.

What are some of the negative aspects of this profession?

One negative side is the toll it takes on family and personal life. With the time we spend at work, and that we often spend on work while at home, family time can suffer. When we play on the road I will be away from my family 3-4 weekends a month. In season we have a game or practice or have rehab 7 days a week, and can spend as much as 16 hours a day at work during Fall camp. It truly makes me value the time I have with my family, and it makes very thankful that my wife supports me in what I do.

What is one thing that you feel most individuals assume or don’t know about sports medicine that you want to clarify?

We do so much more than just tape and ice athletes. We are all Master’s degree educated and have many years of experience and taping and icing, while important, are actually a very small aspect of what we do. We put in an enormous amount of time and energy maintaining education in the most current trends and knowledge in the sports medicine and rehab fields. We truly care about the health and well-being and success of the student-athletes we work with.

*This interview has been edited for length.

Written by: Ryan Bugsch — sports@theaggie.org

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UC Davis’ Tina Tubbs

Tina Tubbs describes her job best: “I wear a number of different hats.”

Aside from her role as the director of sports medicine at UC Davis, Tubbs is the athletic trainer for the gymnastics team, part of the athletic training team for the football team and manages the Sports Medicine Internship Program, formerly known as the Student Athletic Internship Program.

Her prominent role in UC Davis athletics is the result of a passion for sports medicine that began at Humboldt State University, where she played soccer for the Loggers. Starting out as a physical therapy major, she was introduced to athletic training by her teammate who recommended an introductory sports medicine class. After taking that class, Tubbs knew she had found her career.

“I fell in love with it,” Tubbs said. “What motivated me was dealing with a healthy population like the one here at [UC] Davis […] These athletes want to get back fast.”

She found that the athletes were more focused on their recovery than physical therapy patients, many of whom were pediatric or geriatric. Fueled by their desire to play, the athletes would proactively do the rehab exercises prescribed to them and had a high rate of recovery.

After graduating from Humboldt State with a degree in kinesiology, Tubbs was accepted into the master’s degree program for sports medicine at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. She then went to work as an athletic trainer at several colleges around the nation, including top schools such as UC Santa Barbara, University of South Carolina and UCLA. In 2012, she accepted an offer to work in an orthopedics clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. Although working at a clinic meant that she would no longer be treating athletes, she wanted to be closer to her family who lived in Northern California.

However, she quickly realized that clinical work was not her cup of tea.

“My goal all along [had been] to be in athletic training […] to work in Division I [because] I love that pressure, I love that need to keep excelling,” Tubbs said. “I explored [clinical work] and it was super boring. It made me have a bigger passion for what I do here at [UC] Davis […] As bad as any day can ever be, it can never be as bad as the clinic.”

The perfect opportunity for Tubbs came in 2013 when she was given the opportunity to become the director of sports medicine at UC Davis. Not only was the job in Northern California, but it would involve Division I athletes. She brought her years of experience working in top facilities to the Aggies.

“I set the vision for what our sports medicine apartment should look like,” Tubbs said. “Practicing the best practice of sports medicine is the standard of care. We should never be hitting below that.”

As director of sports medicine, she is involved in everything from writing policy and procedure to risk and liability, budgeting, hiring, conducting evaluations of staff, navigating medical hardships and taking care of high-risk athletes. As director, Tubbs fields concerns from parents, addresses input from coaches and works closely with the UC Davis administration to maintain the best quality care for student athletes. On top of it all, she oversees the 11 certified athletic trainers and 35 sports medicine interns who are responsible for 23 intercollegiate Division I teams.

“I think the biggest thing when I go home at night, when decisions are being made or things are being changed […] are two things,” Tubbs said. “One is […] the student athlete’s needs being met and [the second] is the needs of the university being met. And if I can do those two things, and say ‘yes’ and ‘yes’, then I feel like I am doing my job.”

Another aspect of Tubbs’ job is setting the goals for the Sports Medicine Internship Program, which allows UC Davis students to gain experience in that field and exposes them to the inner workings of athletic training. The interns are assigned to one sports team that they work with throughout the school year for 15 hours a week. They learn how to take a medical history for an injured athlete and watch athletic trainers perform various taping, icing and rehab treatments. They also receive observation hours from watching surgeries at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Since Tubbs took over in 2013, the program has undergone significant changes. Before, it was designed specifically for future athletic trainers, but with the variety of work that goes on in the athletic training room, including evaluation and rehabilitation of injuries, treatment for nutritional and psychological concerns and keeping of medical records, Tubbs has made it a goal for the program to include any student pursuing a career in health.

“We’re trying to open this up for people who are pre-physical therapy, pre-health and pre-med, pretty much any health occupation,” said Connie Luong, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major.

Another change in the program has been the emphasis on professionalism, which is reflected in the specific uniforms for each type of sport and the training room.

“There are different times for different uniforms and I really like how [Tubbs] set the professionality of that,” Luong said.

Having worked with Tubbs since 2013, Luong also brought perspective on Tubbs’ commitment to improving the internship program.

“No one really thinks about the management, the operations of the [athletic training] program, all the backstage, undercover, behind-the-scenes work. [Tubbs is] doing all of that and half the time we wouldn’t even know,” Luong said. “It amazes me how she can do so much and still make these types of changes to the [Sports Medicine Internship] Program.”

The director of sports medicine is an all-encompassing role, and is one that can make a difference in the lives of not just student athletes but also students aspiring to work in the sports medicine field.

Written by Julia Wu – sports@theaggie.org

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