Inaugural Sports Physical Therapy Residency Underway

Physical therapists who want to add a level of specialty experience and education under their belts have a new venue – the Inaugural Sports Physical Therapy Residency Program at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. 

Launched this month at Spaulding Hanover and Mass General Brigham at Patriot Place, the 13-month program will deliver hand-on sessions with patients, teaching opportunities, research, and mentorship. 

“It's a pretty comprehensive program with a lot of things for us to complete,” said Zachary Jacobs, one of the two licensed residents accepted into the program. “The aim of it is to become a better clinician, and more specifically, a sports-focused clinician when it comes to returning people back from whatever injury that they're coming from.”

Jacobs is working out of the Spaulding Outpatient Center Emilson YMCA Hanover; Madeline Stach, the second resident, is working at Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center in Foxboro. 

“I have always been interested in doing a residency to further expand my knowledge of sports rehab and sports performance,” said Stach. “Mass General Brigham is such a great, higher education place to be. I felt like this was a cool opportunity to get the bookends of rehab experience, from on-field injury all the way to return to the sport.”

It’s the hand-on experience that will drive these residencies. Along with regular shifts at each facility, Stach and Jacobs will also work with athletic trainers at an area high school (Stach at King Phillip High School, Jacobs at Pembroke High School) where they will be exposed to a wide range of sports: football, soccer, basketball, baseball, swimming, track and field, cross-country, field hockey, lacrosse, and wrestling. Additionally, the two will also work in the medical tents at the Boston Marathon and Falmouth Road Race.

“The goal is to give them good exposure to everything, and then we're also going to give them the opportunity to specialize,” said Ben Adams, Director of the Clinical Residency in Sports Physical Therapy. “So, if someone is really interested in football, they can do most of their fall hours on the football team. There will be some curation to what they're interested in.”

Additionally, every other month will involve a weekend lab course along with seminars that cover clinical reasoning, pain science, teaching, and learning. The duo will also help as lab instructors in the Doctor of Physical Therapy classes and earn teaching experience. 

Lastly, they will conduct research at the Center for Sports Performance and Research Development (CSPAR) at Patriot Place. 

Both Jacobs and Stach have their own roster of clients and their own caseloads. And that’s the idea – to manage on their own but with mentors on standby if needed. 

"So far, the team at Foxboro has made the communication aspect seamless,” said Stach. “With sports medicine upstairs and the orthopedic providers next door, it's possible to see your athlete on the sideline at practice and then coordinate with the whole care team by walking down the hall for a quick conversation."

“This Mass General Brigham program is a great opportunity for me to come in and make patient decisions autonomously with the guidance of the mentorship around me,” said Jacobs. “So, I can always balance ideas off the people within the MGB network while still being the one that makes that final decision in terms of this athlete either needs to go to physical therapy, needs additional imaging, needs to be taken off the field, or can go back on the field. It's that connection between the physician, the athletic trainer, and then the physical therapist - the interprofessional communication - that really allowed me to buy into this program.” 

Jacobs comes to the program with considerable experience at the collegiate and professional levels. He received a Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training at Marist College, was certified as an athletic trainer in 2021, then it was on to a four-month internship in the National Football League with the Seattle Seahawks, followed by a master’s program at Simmons University. While there, he worked with Football Club Cincinnati in Major League Soccer, and that was followed by another stint in the NFL, this time a year-long internship with the New York Jets. 

“The sole focus was just working in an NFL-type environment, learning what it's like to be an athletic trainer and a physical therapist to provide care at the highest level,” recalled Jacobs. “I traveled with the team and was with them for the entire year. It was a great time to get involved in the NFL. And that was working both as a dual-credential physical therapist and athletic trainer.”

Stach, who initially wanted to become a doctor, went to the University of Michigan for her undergraduate years, and then to Washington University in St. Louis for her doctorate in physical therapy. She then went to private practice for a year then decided on the residency to get extra training and experience. It’s a career Stach didn’t foresee when she started college; back then, she thought she was going to be a doctor. 

“But between my junior and senior year of college, I was working at a physical therapy clinic in Michigan that opened my eyes to the PT world and what that mid-level provider looks like, and the relationships you get to build, and I completely changed course,” recalled Stach. “I love that you get to build relationships with people and work them through what might be a low point for them, especially within an athletic population. People love what they do and are passionate about it and if they can't do that anymore because they're injured, that stinks. As PTs, we get to be the person that helps them and educates them how to move properly to get back to their sport.”

The Clinical Residency in Sports Physical Therapy mirrors the Clinical Residency in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy offered at the MGH Institute. Already licensed, PT residents enroll in this post-professional program as non-degree students and pursue intensive training, advanced practice experience. With another layer of licensing and a certificate from an accredited residency program, these licensees can then register and sit for a specialty board exam early.

“This residency we’re offering is another stake in the ground confirming that the MGH Institute is the program to turn to if you want a top-flight education and experience,” said Adams, the program director. “There’s the relationships we have with schools to facilitate everyday physical therapy experiences; there’s the faculty – many of whom are practicing PTs themselves - and then of course there’s the reach and reputation of the Mass General Brigham system which speaks for itself.” 

Adams says the program is exploring more opportunities for residents to help athletic trainers with the men’s and women’s professional soccer teams, the Boston Legacy, and New England Revolution, along with area college sports teams. 
That’s in the future. As for the present, Stach and Jacobs are focused on what they want this residency to delivery one year from now. 

“The program is giving us exposure to all sports - that's the beauty behind it,” said Jacobs. “Coming into it, I’m focusing on how do we treat every athlete the same? My goal at the end of it is to work in either a collegiate or professional setting, in a team-based setting tied with a college and all the different sports that are comprised within that, or maybe I specialize in a sport and go the professional route.”

Stach wants to learn how to treat an athlete from a team perspective, not just from an individual’s perspective. 

“I’m really looking to improve my skills as a clinician through that whole rehab process, being a better decision maker surrounding return to sport and performance and communicating my clinical reasoning and decision-making to the athlete's full care team,” reasoned Stach. “The way that Mass General Brigham has it set up is everybody is on the care team, so you can talk to everybody. That’s important.”