How to Become a Sports Medicine Physician

Table of Contents

iii

Table of Contents
How to Become a Sports Medicine Physician ................................................................................ 1
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iii
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... v
Undergraduate ................................................................................................................................. 9
Pick Your Major ......................................................................................................................... 9
Ways to help you succeed ........................................................................................................... 9
Medical School ............................................................................................................................. 15
How to apply ............................................................................................................................. 15
Ways to conquer stress.............................................................................................................. 15
Residency ...................................................................................................................................... 19
Fellowship ................................................................................................................................. 20
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 20
Index ............................................................................................................................................. 21
Citation...................................................................................................................................... 21

Introduction

Introduction
Have you ever pondered about the path of a sports medicine physician? A sports doctor can
enjoy the coveted stability and satisfaction of a career treating patients in a hospital or clinic.
And at the same time, this doctor could also work for professional or college sports teams,
traveling with the players and enjoying games from the sidelines. Inside this manual contains
vital information on how take the next step further in becoming this profession. This manual also
has all the challenges and solutions one might have pursuing this career.

Chapter One

Undergraduate
Pick Your Major
As an aspiring future medical student you need to pick
a major that corresponds to that field. Pick a major that
will give you a strong base in biology, chemistry, or
physics. I suggest majoring in Biology or having a PreMed track.
With any of these majors you will get a good
understanding about the subject, and it will prepare you
for the MCAT you will take for entry into medical
school. Upon taking these courses you will need to
perform well in order to have a competitive GPA (Ex.
3.6) and to excel in youre in these courses which will prepare you in the long road.

Ways to help you succeed

In your undergraduate years, students who aspire to go onto medical school must have a wellrounded atmosphere that will make them competitive compared to other students by potential
medical schools. Here are five key things that would help you as a student and would look great
on your resume. We will go into detail on how these topics will help you succeed as an
undergraduate.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Study
SI Sessions
Scholarships
Organizations
Shadowing/ Scribing

Our first topic is study. As a biology major or pre-med

track I cant emphasis this enough that it is imperative
that you study the material on your classes. Most
students will think its common sense to study, but in
turn will fall short and reap the consequences.
Everybody is different but you need to study for 2 hrs. More on the subject material. A great way to study is to
chop up the material and study bit by bit instead of
having a long study session.
Secondly, SI Sessions or tutoring is an effective way to
help you learn the material and you could build
relationships. In an SI session you will be given
resources and extra material that would help you get a
better grade in the course. Along with improving your

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How to Become a Sports Medicine Physician

grade, you will be introduced to new people with great resources which would allow you to build
a relationship. You could make new friends, study groups, or become a mentee.
Thirdly, scholarships are a great way to help you succeed financially. Undergraduate can be
expensive, so you want to find way to lessen your cost for school. Scholarships are great way to
help you compensate your fees without paying it back like loans. You can find scholarships or
jobs on campus that could pay for some of your fees. If you search scholarships for your school
you could pull up a number of things you qualify for that scholarship.
Also jobs on campus could help to. Working for
housing as an RA/HA etc. could help you by the
housing department paying for your room & board
including a meal plan. To locate these jobs you
can:

asked an RA,
Desk Clerk
go online to you schools website and
search for on campus jobs.

Fourthly, Organizations can be a great way to boost

your resume and get you involved. Joining an
organization will allow you to get more information about a certain subject or skill that will help
you improve either as a student or improve your chances of getting looked at in an interview by
your resume. To find different organizations arent hard. Here are ways to find an organization:
Hearing about them in class
Talk to your advisor
Flyers posted around campus
Asking a friend/RA
Twitter
These are great resources that would lead you to find an organization fit for you.

Fifthly, Shadowing/ Scribing are great ways to stand out when applying to medical schools and
gaining experience. Shadowing simply means following a doctor around his workplace and
seeing what exactly he does. With shadowing youre not getting paid but just gaining experience.
You can find the opportunity to shadow by:
Calling
Emailing a clinic in which you found interest and asking to shadow.
Scribing is following at the hip of a doctor, but writing down the information/ reports. Scribing is
a good way to get a paying job and first-hand experience with a doctor.
You can go online and find physicians scribes,
Through google search for scribes in your area.

Chapter One

If you have a clinic in mind you can always call them and ask for the opportunity to
scribe.

11

Chapter Two

15

Medical School
After completing your four year
undergraduate program and taking the
MCAT, youre now ready for medical
school. Medical school is another
stepping stone for an aspiring sports
medicine physician. It is a four year
program consisting of the first two
years completing classwork
assignments such as microbiology,
anatomy, pathology etc. And the last
two years are where you get to
participate in clinical rotations
(shadowing). In between these years you take three major exams to wrap up your medical
program.

How to apply
To apply to most medical schools in the United States:
1. You can go online and use the AAMCs centralized application service, the American
Medical College Application Service (AMCAS).
a. The AMCAS collects, verifies, and delivers application information and MCAT
exam scores to each school you choose. Each participating school is responsible
for making its own individual admissions decisions.
2. For the 2015 application cycle, the AMCAS processing fee is $160, which includes one
medical school.
a. Additional medical schools may be added at a cost of $36 each. AMCAS fees
may change.
3. Most medical schools require an interview, though the process varies by school.
a. Interviews can take place on or off campus. They can be conducted by one
admissions committee member, by multiple members of the committee, or by offcampus interviewers, such as practicing physicians.

Ways to conquer stress

The journey of becoming a sports medicine physician isnt an easy relaxing route. Theyre times
where the work load may get to much for you to handle, or some of the subjects you cant seem
to grasp. There could be so many situations that could put you out of sync and here are some
solution that could help you to conquer stress on your path
Support system

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How to Become a Sports Medicine Physician

Having a support system is very effective in many ways. When youre feeling confused, down,
or stressed its great to have a strong support system that you could talk to, to pick you back up.
A good support group can be:

Family
Friends
Faith

These are great sources to come to and you trust. These support systems are great to talk to when
you need guidance and courage to carry on. Each one will offer you wisdom for you to think
about and will always think of the good for you.

Chapter 3

19

Residency
In a medical residency you have been granted the name as a doctor in completing your M.D. or
D.O. program. Depending on whether you want do non-surgical or surgical practice you will go
through three to five additional years of practicing at a hospital as a resident. In residency you
will the doctor diagnosing the patients, doing paperwork, and spending majority of your time
(7am-5pm) going through rotations and meetings. It will be a rigorous task, but very doable. You
will be given health benefits and salary. Here are some guidelines on how to apply for residency
in the U.S.
1. Qualifying for a Residency Program:
a. Once you receive a visa, you are eligible to apply to enter a residency program in
the U.S. However, it is strongly recommended that IMGs participate in observer
ship rotations in a clinical setting before applying to residency programs.
Observer ships provide IMGs with invaluable knowledge of U.S. medical clinical
practice settings and with U.S. physicians who can serve as references.
2. Choosing Residency Programs:
There are four different tracks within an internal medicine residency program:
transitional, preliminary, categorical and primary care.
a. Residents in one-year transitional programs rotate through different hospital
departments every couple of months. While a transitional program counts as a
year of training, it may not provide enough credits to move into the second year of
residency training.
b. Preliminary programs are also one-year programs for those wishing to
specialize who need a year of internal medicine training
c. Categorical programs are three-year programs that may allow you to train up to
board eligibility if your performance is satisfactory. Categorical programs are
seen as the more traditional program and are mainly hospital-based.
d. Primary care programs provide increased emphasis on ambulatory care
experience in the community and are becoming more prevalent. Those who are
sure that they will be working as a generalist are advised to apply to a primary
care program. Those who wish to fully train in internal medicine and then have
the opportunity to train in a specialty should apply for a categorical position.
While it is preferable to be in a categorical or primary care program, training in a
transitional or preliminary program is better than being in no program at all. It is
highly advisable to choose the program that best suits your needs and goals.
3. The Match - Obtaining a Residency
e. Applicants must register with the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP),
www.nrmp.org External Link known as the Match, which matches each applicant
via computer and hospital residency programs according to the ranked preference
lists. "Beginning with the 2004 Match, all sponsoring institutions participating in

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How to Become a Sports Medicine Physician

the NRMP Main Match must register and attempt to fill all their positions in the
Match except for those specialties or programs participating in other matching
program.
4. Interview Process
It is important for an applicant to pose as a strong candidate when interviewing
with schools and to make sure you stand out. Learn a little about each residency
program youre being interviewed with. Research areas about that program you
find interesting. With that you can provoke conversations not only about why you
desire that program, but how this program stands out then the other ones. You can
make a better impression that way verses one who doesnt show much interest in
that particular program

Fellowship
After completing your residency program it is advisable to complete a one-three year fellowship
program. Fellowship programs are jobs at a hospital, clinic, etc. where you specialize in a certain
field such as sports medicine and gain more experience while improving your craft. You will be
a fellow that goes through rotations and observes a lot about patients dealing with sports
medicine injuries. This is the last stone that will make your journey complete. You can go online
and search for hospitals and request to fellowship there, or find local universities that offer
fellowship.

Conclusion
The path of becoming a sports medicine physician isnt easy but its rewarding. Going through
undergraduate, medical school, residency, and fellowship could be overwhelming and hard to
achieve, but know that this task is very doable and with this manual are outlined ways to help
you achieve success on becoming a doctor. At the end of reading this tool guide, you should
have a good understanding of how your education ladder for a sports medicine doctor looks like
and the directions of completing it. Look at this manual more like tools guide that prepares you
and instructs you how to climb each step.

Index

fellowship, 20
MCAT, 9, 15
medical residency, 19

Medical School, iii, 15

step, 20
Undergraduate, iii, 9, 10

Citation
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

http://rcrmc-ortho.org/home/
http://premedusa.blogspot.com/2013/05/medical-schools-admitting-internationals.html
http://www.hagerstownnaz.org/main/?p=171
http://blog.4tests.com/mcat-recommendations-that-can-help-you-to-35-and-beyond/
http://www.diverse.cam.ac.uk/studying/
http://educationportal.com/articles/Sports_Medicine_Doctor_Educational_Requirements.html
7. http://www.healthcarecolleges.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Sports-Medicine.jpg
8. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groupssections/international-medical-graduates/practicing-medicine/residency-programrequirements.page?