Phone: (775) 784 - 4678
careers@unr.nevada.edu
http://www.unr.edu/career/

Thompson Building, Rm 200
University of Nevada, Reno
Phone: (775) 784 - 4678
Fax: (775) 784 - 1884
careers@unr.nevada.edu

Expanding participation in sports activities has resulted in increased interest in the profession of sports medicine and related careers. With this growing involvement in sports activities, a dramatic shift in emphasis within the field of sports medicine is taking place, from injury rehabilitation to injury prevention and maximizing optimum athletic performance. This trend includes not only traditional approaches such as conditioning and weight training but also such fields as nutrition, massage, and acupuncture.

One of the attractions of sports medicine is the wide range of opportunities. People who prefer to not make a lengthy college commitment might consider a position as a sports physical therapy assistant, while those more academically oriented might consider becoming a sports psychologist. Also, various opportunities exist within the specialties. For example, an orthopedist might have these options: working in a sports medicine center seeing patients, while conducting research or assisting a high school as a team's physician, while maintaining a private practice emphasizing sports medicine.

WHAT IS SPORTS MEDICINE? The term "sports medicine" should be viewed as an umbrella term that encompasses both clinical and scientific aspects of exercise and sport. As is common with developing areas of knowledge, various definitions exist.

1. Athletic medicine - The evaluation, conditioning, prevention, and treatment of injuries.
2. Research - The physiological, biochemical, biomechanical, and behavioral aspects of athletic medicine; finding new methods more successful and satisfactory than the present ones.
3. Prevention and rehabilitation of chronic and degenerative disease associated with sports and athletics.

Many specialties contribute to the objectives of sports medicine including:

• Acupuncture therapist Optometrist
• Athletic trainer Orthotist
• Chiropractor Orthopedist
• Dentist Osteopath
• Exercise physiologist Physical therapist
• Health/fitness director Podiatrist
• Massage therapist Psychologist

Individuals in these professions work as a team to achieve the goals of sports medicine. Except for the athletic trainers, they all have their education outside of sports.

GETTING STARTED: Volunteering as a student athletic trainer can expose one to the opportunities available in sports medicine. It allows the volunteer to observe and possibly interact with the many medical and allied health specialists associated with the world of sports.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The Pre-Professional and Graduate School Planning office has information and resources on the various careers in sports medicine. We encourage you to take advantage of the services available at the PGSP: academic guidance, professional school catalogs, workshops, and information on the professional school application and testing process. In addition there are three technical journals that deal with the issues and developments in sports medicine.

All three are available in the Life and Health Sciences Library on the UNR campus. They are:

The American Journal of Sports Medicine
Medicine and Science in Sports Medicine
The Physician and Sports Medicine


* Information obtained from Opportunities in Sports Medicine Careers, Wm. Ray Heitzmann Ph.D. NTC Publishing Group, 1992.