New St. Luke’s residency program merges athletic training and occupational medicine

Most days you can find athletic trainer Nilvia Vazquez on the brewery floor at Breiningsville’s Samuel Adams, teaching employees how to properly lift a case of Hard Seltzer or performing ergonomic assessments and reviewing workplace injuries.

As the first resident in St. Luke’s Athletic Training: Prevention and Wellness residency program, she is preparing for a career in creating healthier and safer workplaces.

In fact, workplace musculoskeletal disorders cost companies more than $60 billion each year in medical expenses and lost production time, according to Kyra Dodson, manager of occupational medicine, prevention and wellness for St. Luke’s.

Mike Malchitsky, senior health and safety manager at Samuel Adams, has seen positive results across safety, production and general employee well-being since Vazquez began her residency at the brewery, he said.

Vazquez, who is approaching the completion of her year of residency training, much of it spent at Samuel Adams, said she considers “injury prevention at work (to be) the simplest, yet the most powerful tool we can utilize to ensure a safe workplace.”