In-Depth Look: Athletic Trainer for County Fire and Rescue Services
Kelsey Loftus, DAT, LAT, ATC is an Athletic Trainer (AT) and Health and Injury Prevention Manager for Montgomery County Government and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services. She has been a certified AT since 2019.
Describe your setting:
I am contracted through Concentra to provide athletic training services to both the fire department (career and volunteer members) and the county government. My services to fire and rescue include injury evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation while also providing injury preventative education, functional screenings, job analyses, and health and wellness support.
Describe your typical day:
Each day and week are always a little different, making my job interesting. My typical day is spent having individual appointment times available for firefighters and rescuers to schedule with me while on shift at their station or off-shift. These appointments can be for injury evaluation, treatment and/or rehabilitation. I also dedicate 1 – 2 days a week to our recruit academy. I run an active recovery day once a week focused on injury prevention and catch up with any recruits who need injury evaluation or treatment.
When not working with firefighters one-on-one, I will schedule station visits to visit crews at their stations to provide educational talks on injury prevention, sleep health, and general health and wellness and give them the opportunity to be evaluated through the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) to learn more about preventing future injury or dysfunction.
What do you like about your position? What motivates you?
I love the people I get to serve in the fire service. I greatly respect those who work in public safety, having grown up in a family of police and firefighters and now being married to a police officer. The department has become like a second family to me, making everyday fun and exciting. I also love the opportunity to experience the job of a firefighter and rescuer by riding along and attending specialized training. I’ve suited up and entered a live burn with our recruit academy, attended swift water rescue training on the Potomac River, participated in bomb squad training, completed a 24-hour ride along at our busiest station in the county, and had many more once-in-a-lifetime experiences that not many healthcare professionals can say they’ve had.
My biggest motivation is knowing that the services I provide as an AT directly impact how a firefighter and rescuer performs on a call. Knowing that my actions can directly affect how a paramedic performs on a code, how a firefighter operates during a structure fire or how a swift water rescuer can perform a water rescue are some of the many motivators I have in this position. Serving those who serve others is something that motivates me each day to be better as an individual and a clinician.
What is your greatest achievement as an Athletic Trainer?
My greatest achievement is having a firefighter or rescuer tell me that the treatment or education I gave them helped. Whether it be in performing their job better, having an easier time playing catch with their kids or even making the day-to-day less stressful by not worrying about their aches and pains. My biggest goal as an AT working with fire and rescue services is to keep our personnel on the floor longer and give them the tools and education to enjoy a long, healthy retirement.
What advice do you have about your practice setting for a young AT looking at this setting?
Learn as much as you can about public safety by riding along with police and fire departments! I started my position with only experience working with law enforcement, not fire and rescue. I learned everything I could about fire and rescue by riding along with all the different units (truck, engine, medic unit, ambulance, EMS duty officers, battalion chiefs) and picking up on the job’s demands to better understand how I could serve them as an AT. I learned to speak their language, understand their jobs, and translate that into my practice.
I encourage anyone who is interested in the public safety setting to join the Public Safety Athletic Trainers’ Society. It’s a great resource for more information on the setting, continuing education opportunities centered around public safety topics and more!
