Exercise Science-Option in Sports Medicine & Rehabilitation, Associate of Science

The area of Sports Medicine is growing rapidly, with opportunities for multi-skilled health care professionals who can collaborate with physicians to provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.  The Associate of Science degree in Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation is designed to introduce the students to sports medicine career paths and prepare them for successful transfer.

Students in the program will learn the basic skills of:  recognizing injury, emergency and on the field care, prevention of injury, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries.  Students in the program will learn hands on skills in both lab and off campus in professional settings.  In addition, student will be able to demonstrate the use of Evidence-Based Practice in treatment of specific injuries and explain both written and orally using scholarly sources.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of prevention, recognition, management, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries and begin to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and clinical practice.
• Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills and gain knowledge on how to apply them to injury prevention, recognition, rehabilitation, and to emergency situations.
• Demonstrate the use of Evidence-Based Practice in treatment of specific injuries and explain both written and orally using scholarly sources.
• Demonstrate effective communication necessary to interact with other Allied Health Professionals, such as:  health care providers, administrators, athletes, coaches, families, and the community.
• Demonstrate knowledge, in both practical demonstrations, and written and oral presentations, of the location and function of the major joints, muscles, and connective tissue in the body.
• Demonstrate skills needed to effectively conduct an on the field and off the field assessment of an athlete, including emergency procedures, use of the HOPS method of assessment, proper recording of data in SOAP notes, and adherence to FERPA guidelines.

Raritan Valley Community College Associate of Arts (AA) and Associate of Science (AS) degree programs are designed to comply with the New Jersey Community Colleges General Education Foundation which supports transfer of courses to NJ Public four-year colleges and universities.  Students who intend to transfer to a NJ college or university can further improve the transfer of courses by using the Recommended Transfer Program (RTP) feature in NJTransfer.org.