By Stevie Culver
When you think of the athletic training profession, working in a hospital isn’t the first option that comes to mind. But for Ian McGinnis, an athletic trainer in the pediatric orthopedics department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), it was always on the table.
When McGinnis first started down the road toward his professional work, studying exercise science at Manhattan College in New York and then transferring to Temple University, he had the idea of working in a formal medical setting already in his head. The path he’d imagined for himself didn’t necessarily end up at a hospital, but he knew it was always an option in case the irregular schedule of more traditional athletic training practice settings didn’t mesh with his lifestyle.
“It was always on my radar,” McGinnis said. “The typical athletic training lifestyle, like high school or college, is very… fast-and-furious. I always had it in the back of my head that I wanted to do that for a little bit, but I also wanted kind of an escape route. I wouldn’t want to work in that setting forever.”
He hadn’t pictured working at CHOP during his education but he was well aware of the institution. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is the oldest hospital in the United States specifically for pediatric patients, first opening its doors in 1855. McGinnis grew up in Philadelphia, where the CHOP name carries plenty of pedigree.
Coming out of school though, McGinnis followed through on his desire to start off in the more traditional athletic training field, working with NXT Sports as their primary athletic trainer for club lacrosse. NXT Sports is a major organizer for club lacrosse tournaments and showcases in the United States, which provided McGinnis with ample opportunity to oversee medical coverage for the company’s events.
“I was responsible for medical planning of the events, and I hired ATs from all over the country to work these events. This required a significant amount of communication and planning between the AT’s and our event organizers” McGinnis said.
However, shortly after McGinnis started with NXT, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in full force. He spent time furloughed from the company, and upon returning he found himself burnt out from the workload associated with the company’s COVID-19 response and began looking for a change. Luckily, one of the AT’s whom he worked with through NXTworked at CHOP, and she recommended him for an interview. McGinnis began his new role in summer 2021 and found a brand-new set of challenges to overcome in his new role.
Now that McGinnis works in a hospital instead of a sports club, the people he interacts with on a day-to-day basis are completely different. He works directly with sports medicine physicians whose primary training is in pediatrics and then completed fellowships in sports medicine. One thing that he was not prepared for was how often those with sports injuries have other medical comorbidities. “We have patients with lots of co-existing conditions, and I’m always learning about a lot of things that just weren’t on my radar before.”
This job is a dream position for McGinnis. He’s always loved working with kids, and his current role also allows him to only work evenings and weekends when he wants to. He didn’t imagine himself necessarily ending up in a role like this, but now that he’s here, he wouldn’t want to change a thing.
McGinnis said it’s important to him that he teaches the children he works with how to understand and take care of their bodies, so they stay safe on the playing field.
“Working with kids in particular is really fulfilling,” McGinnis said. “When I started in athletic training, I always thought I’d want to work in professional sports or high-level collegiate sports. And when I had the opportunity to do that… I realized it wasn’t really as fulfilling as maybe I expected it to be. What I found most fulfilling was working with young kids. I could always kind of see myself in them, and it made me look back to everything that I gained from sports as I was growing up. The physical activity, the socialization, teamwork.”
Athletic trainers work in a wide variety of practice settings, each with its unique attributes. So many options for a fulfilling career – check them out!