Sports Medicine Career

Since 2014 the number of sports medicine physician is 708,300 and has kept growing. The specialty was initially practiced primarily by physicians associated with professional sports teams, but with increases interest in amatuer sports and physical fitness programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, it grew rapidly. We need sports medicine physicians for professional athletes and amateur athletes to address issues such with nutrition, substance abuse, sports psychology and to even counsel athletes on injury prevention. Becoming a sports medicine physician starts with the challenges there will be before ever having the job, continues with hard work that comes within the job, and fits with why I choose this as my career.

Despite sports medicine physician

There are years of qualifications to be encountered before starting your career as a physician in sports medicine. As stated in “Sports Medicine Physician....Requirements” (2017), becoming a sports medicine physician requires obtaining a bachelor’s degree and a Doctor of Medicine degree. During their undergraduate years, students will need to take pre-med classes in biology, anatomy, and chemistry. Along with schooling there will also be working involved. “Sports Medicine Physician....Requirements” (2017) say, medical school is a four year program in which the last two years included clinical rotations. Throughout schooling there will be necessary training involved. According to “Sport Medicine Physician... Requirements” (2017), residency programs begin the in-depth primary specialty training. During this time, a resident can begin to focus on surgical or non surgical areas, after completing a residency, a physician can apply for a sports medicine fellowship program, which is typically one year in length. There will be challenges and controversy that will come with becoming a sports medicine physician. Some of the few widely reported controversies in sports medicine were on concussion in young athletes, conflict of interest, and core stabilization as a treatment for low back pain, femoroacetabular impingement, and spondylolysis in adolescent athletes according to “Sports

These discussions won’t always be easy ones and may require life changing decisions. According to Sports Medicine Physician (2017), employment of physicians and surgeons is projected to grow fourteen percent from 2014 to 2024, much faster than the average for all occupations. In addition, there will be many hours that need to be put forth. For physicians under age 40, about two-thirds work between forty and sixty hours per week, of this age group only thirteen percent work fewer than forty hours per week and five percent work more than eighty hours per week, (“ How Many Hours.. Workweek,” 2015). About twenty percent of responding physicians aged sixt to sixty-nine work fewer than forty hours per week, another twenty percent of this age group works more than sixty hours per week (“ How Many Hours.. Workweek,” 2015). As well as two-thirds of physicians aged forty to sixty work between forty and sixty hours per week and another twenty percent works between sixty-one and eighty hours per week (“ How Many Hours.. Workweek,” 2015). Sports medicine physicians will eventually have a chance to move up in their career sector. How to become a sports doctor (2017) says, the entry level salary in Miami Florida is $55,510 and after years of experience it increases to $187,200. Sports medicine requires dedication and tough discussions but If you have the skills to complement sports