The following paragraph is an insightful student-view on how teaching (in this case, in the KIN Dept at SJSU) and student preparation are impacting the way healthcare practitioners treat and care for soldiers in theaters of war.

Student story:

“The last two weeks have been pretty eventful. We are training the unit in the engineering job they will be conducting while in Afghanistan. So it is quite productive for them. I have alternate medics out to the ranges with them and leave two in the rear with me to train and take care of whatever necessary tasks the unit requires of us. I was able to get the chapter worksheets for KIN 188 from the professor, which is working out great as study/test sheets for my medics for some of the injuries not battle related. Also a lot of the past power points from anatomy and physiology are coming in handy as a study aids for my medics to get that A & P really ingrained into their heads. This time has also allowed me to physically train my medics up to the point where I feel their conditioning should be. The combat medic is a physically demanding job.

In addition to carrying the basic load every soldier does, we also must carry our medic bags and also be able to carry or at least drag a wounded soldier who is also wearing a full battle load (ammo, weapon, body armor, helmet, and water source). With these physical demands I take pride in making sure my medics are more than ready to handle whatever may come their way by putting them through a variety of workouts, being weight training, crossfit, drills in full battle load, etc.”

It is student stories similar to the above that remind us of the wide-ranging impact that Kinesiology, and in the larger sense CASA, have on students and the patients and clients in their care.

Let’s save lives and transform our communities – here and abroad.

Want to learn more? Recent SJSU blog entry on student-soldiers click here.