How to Gain Experience in Sports Medicine: Fellowships and Training Programs
Sports medicine is a field that often requires a lot of experience. You may be interested in medical school but are not sure if you are qualified or can afford it. Applying for a sports medicine fellowship can help offset your school costs and expose you to the daily life of sports medicine practicioners. Furthermore, fellowships often offer a lot of support, supervision, and instruction to new or inexperienced practicioners. Being a fellow also helps you connect and make ties with those already part of the sports medicine world so that you can more quickly become part of the sports medicine society.
Fellowships often entail a fellow and faculty member working together in all aspects of a patient’s diagnosis and treatment. As a fellow, you can expect to spend most of your time in direct patient care either in a clinic or operating room providing rehabilitation or follow-up. If you are interested in conducting research, fellowships offer you the opportunity to do so in state-of the-art labaratories with highly skilled and experienced mentors. Depending on the fellowship, a fellow may be assigned a high school, college, or both, where they can supervise and assist athletic teams.
Sports Medicine Fellowships and Training Programs:
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Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellowship: Work with highly skilled physicians, attend conferences and lectures, work closely with high school and college athletic teams and care for your own patients.
- Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Fellowship: This fellowship offers experience in reconstructive foot and ankle management. The fellow will work in a large private referral clinic, frequented by high performance athletes.
- Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship: These fellows will attain a lot of clinical experience, attend surgeries, accompany other doctors to seminars and other meetings, as well as assist in producing and publishing research documents.
- Student Researcher Program: Unlike other fellowships, this opportunity is open to undergraduates, graduate students and others conducting research at a specific university.
- Observational Visit: Observational visits to sports medicine clinics can be arranged through the American Sports Medicine Institute. You can observe at foot and ankle clinics, primary sports medicine clinics, physical therapy clinics and many others.
These fellowships and their availability may vary based on where you hope to be located. Please consult the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine for more specific information state to state and school to school.
