The University of Wisconsin Hospital Sports Medicine Center offers an eight-week athletic training internship program that provides the candidate with comprehensive experiences in the sports medicine clinic, sports rehabilitation, and preventative injury programming opportunities through local outreach athletic programs.

Frequency

There will be one eight-week session. Only one candidate will be selected per session.

Expectations

The candidate will be expected to readily participate in direct patient care and utilize evaluative tools and critical thinking measures to ensure experiential exposure to the sports medicine clinic. The experiences provided through the UW Sports Medicine Athletic Training Student Clinical Internship are not designed to be shadowing opportunities.

As a student in this clinical internship, you will be expected to utilize critical thinking skills, evaluative tools and a hands-on approach to patient care. You will be given opportunities to hone your skills, to develop educational programs for patients and to maintain professional working relationships with other health care professionals.

Rotations

Clinical rotations are scheduled five days per week and vary based on clinic schedules. There are opportunities in the evenings or on weekends to work with local semi-professional teams under the supervision of a certified athletic trainer.

The UW Sports Medicine Athletic Training Student Clinical Internship is designed to improve the quality of professional development and to provide athletic training students with a breadth of experience in the orthopedic clinical and sports rehabilitation settings.

This internship program is intended to foster such growth in an attempt to recognize the growing national trend of athletic trainers working as a physician extender and within rehabilitation programs.

We aim to offer an elite program that emphasizes a proactive approach to injury prevention and management, while simultaneously challenging critical thinking and clinical skill advancement.

As a conduit for the National Athletic Trainers Association, our program seeks to recognize the athletic training profession as one that employs experiential education to promote quality professional development for athletic training students.

To apply for the Sports Medicine Athletic Training Clinical Internship, please send the following information in one envelope to: Shari Clark, MS, LAT, Internship Coordinator, UW Health Sports Medicine Clinic, 621 Science Drive, Madison, WI 53711. 

• Completed application (pdf)
• Cover letter
• Resume
• Three letters of recommendation (one letter must be from AT Curriculum Director)
• Official college transcript
• Proof of liability insurance
• Copy of CPR/AED card (front and back)

Application deadline: First Monday in February. Candidates will be notified within two weeks of interviewing or six weeks after the application deadline.

Prerequisites

In order to be considered for the internship program, the candidate must meet all of the following criteria: 

• Must either be entering or currently enrolled in your final year within an accredited athletic training program at a college or university and must have completed all coursework in evaluation, rehabilitation and biomechanics. If biomechanics is not an officially offered course, must be able to describe where biomechanical information of sport/movement has been taught.
• Maintain a 3.0 GPA or above
• Certified in CPR/AED
• Must be enrolled in a CAATE-accredited athletic training program taking a course for credit in order to have liability coverage provided through your program

Evaluation

At the beginning of the internship, candidates will be provided with a list of specific goals and objectives that he/she will be required to meet throughout the course of their internship experience.

The candidate will periodically be asked to demonstrate proficiency or competency of a specific skill or concept throughout the course of this internship. These will be administered in the form of hands-on demonstration, self-assessment, or written comprehension.

Faculty, staff, the clinical coordinator and the sports rehabilitation coordinator will be expected to provide ongoing feedback throughout the internship.

Candidates will be provided formal feedback at the mid-semester and at the end of their internship. If the candidate is not meeting required or expected skill proficiencies, we reserve the right, at any time during the program, to discontinue that candidate’s internship.

Curriculum

The candidate will have the opportunity to participate in the following activities or settings throughout the course of his/her internship: 

• Outpatient Sports Medicine Clinic
• Outpatient Sports Rehabilitation Clinic
• Runners Clinic
• Swimmers Clinic
• Dry Needling Clinic
• Sports Medicine Journal Club and mini-talks
• Community athletic training outreach 

Through each of these settings, we seek to provide the candidate with educational experiences that are committed to the growth and development of critical thinking skills. For this reason, changes or adjustments may be made to the program schedule throughout the course of the internship to provide the candidate with the best overall experience. This opportunity is not a shadowing experience.

The UW Hospitals and Clinics Sports Medicine Center offers an eight-week athletic training internship program that provides the candidate with comprehensive experiences in the sports medicine clinic, sports rehabilitation, and preventative injury programming opportunities through local outreach athletic programs.

The UW Sports Medicine Athletic Training Student Clinical Internship is designed to improve the quality of professional development and to provide athletic training students with a breadth of experience in the orthopedic clinical and sports rehabilitation settings.

More Information

Questions? Contact Shari Clark at sclark3@uwhealth.org or (608) 263-9722.

About UW Health Sports Medicine