Mark,

I think you hit the nail right on the head with your insightful
comments. I have often wondered why our field does not follow
similar practices of other allied health programs when it comes to
preparation of our students for the real world that they will be
entering upon graduation. Let's take graduate programs for
instance. I can see the argument that grad students should have
their hours limited due to having to attend classes and in some cases
do research. 20 hours a week does not really compare to the
realistic 40+ hours a week that they will experience if they get a
job post grad school. So are we really preparing that grad student
for the real world that they'll soon be entering? I definitely
believe the pre-season experience is of key importance for a number
of reasons other than students being used as work force. During
preseason if weight charts, SAC & BESS assessment, various heat
related illnesses, equipment fitting, and other such practices are
being done, shouldn't that be enough proof that students' presence to
be involved with these activites are necessary? If they come to the
clinical rotation once all these things are completed, when will they
get the chance to experience these things? Seeing it in class, but
never using it in a realistic situation is definitely not learning
over time and would technically be non-compliant standards-wise,
wouldn't it? We HIGHLY ENCOURAGE our students to make sure they can
be available for preseason. If they do, great. If they don't we no
longer get upset. It's their education. If they can live with
getting into the real world and not knowing some of the real world
applications of certain things due to not having the opportunity for
practice then that's fine. It also affects them later when they come
for references.

Wes Brown, MSED,LAT,ATC,PES,CES
Director of Sports Medicine
UNC Wilmington
brownw@...