NUHS interns learn sports medicine treating college athletes

June 1, 2010 — Dr. Thomas Solecki is a faculty clinician at National University of Health Sciences (NUHS), where he supervises chiropractic interns at NUHS’ on-campus clinic. His interns benefit from a unique training opportunity in sports medicine.

They accompany Solecki during regular visits to Northwestern and DePaul Universities, where he is a team physician for those schools’ athletic teams. There, interns observe and assist Solecki in treating elite collegiate athletes.

“I’ve been a team physician for Northwestern for ten years, and DePaul for two years,” says Solecki who is not only a DC, but also a certified chiropractic sports physician with a diplomate from the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians.

Solecki is also certified as a corrective exercise specialist and performance enhancement specialist.

Justin Herceg, DC, an intern who’s spent time at Northwestern and DePaul says, “We’re seeing muscle strains and sprains, fractures, joint disorders, and we work with both men and women from a variety of different teams. Typically, we perform palpation, examination and functional tests on the students so that we can look at the muscle patterns and see which muscles are and are not firing, and then give them rehabilitation on the results.”

Interns Therese Gay and Larry Masarsky also plan to work with athletes and sports medicine in their future practices. “Working with Dr. Solecki is a great experience, because while he’s teaching, he’s forcing you to use your clinical training and problem solving skills with each patient. He takes the time to show you what’s going on with each patient.”

All of the interns report that they especially appreciate travelling to Northwestern and DePaul, because the patient population is so different than the client base of the university’s clinic. “I like working with athletes. They will go the extra mile in working to get better. When I return to Ohio and open my practice, I will definitely work toward becoming a chiropractic physician for a sports team,” says Justin.

Another unique advantage is the experience the interns gain in working on a team of multidisciplinary professionals, since they work in concert with physical therapists, orthopedists, and other medical specialty physicians while treating the athletes.

“This is a great lesson in integrative medicine,” says Solecki. “The interns gain valuable experience working in a sports medicine arena with multiple providers. The interchange of information and the multidisciplinary aspect of care is so important to their overall education. Plus, they gain real world experience working with Division 1A athletes.”

Source: National University of Health Sciences, www.nuhs.edu