University of Louisiana gets accredited in athletic training
LOUISIANA La. — Three years of work paid off this semester as UL Lafayette received accreditation of its athletic training education program, becoming the third accredited program in the state.
The university joins Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and Louisiana College in Pineville.
Nicholls State University in Thibodaux and LSU in Baton Rouge have also applied for the status from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, but are awaiting final approval, said Toby Doré, UL Lafayette professor and director of the athletic training education program.
Doré graduated from UL Lafayette in 1996 when the school offered a sports medicine concentration for those who wanted to qualify for the national certification exam for athletic trainers. Then, students had to qualify for the exam with 1,500 clinical hours.
But the requirements for qualifying to sit for the exam changed beginning Dec. 31, 2003. Students must now complete an accredited athletic training education program to qualify for the exam.
Melanie Lewis will be one of the first graduates in the newly accredited program in May. Lewis began the program knowing it was going through the accreditation process.
“It’s nice to know now,” the graduating senior said. “We can sit for our test. It’s like a breath of fresh air. A load is off.”
The athletic training education program gave her a firm foundation for her next step, physician assistant school, Lewis said. She wants to concentrate in orthopedics.
Crystal Cockburn graduates from the program in December and plans to go onto physical therapy school. Cockburn is originally from Shreveport, but transferred into the program from the University of South Florida. When she decided to move back to Louisiana, Cockburn was considering LSU and UL Lafayette.
“UL looked like they were going to receive it sooner,” Cockburn said. “I came in a second-semester sophomore. I didn’t have many years left. It would have been difficult to do an internship.”
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Marsha Sills
msills@theadvertiser.com
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