Category: Professional Development

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Wisconsin athletic trainers, military medics learning from one another

Article reposted from UWBadgers.com
Author: Andy Baggot

It all began with a familiar pose: A man sitting on his living room sofa watching sports on TV.

Tim Ehlers was relaxing at his home in Tomah, tuned into a Wisconsin men’s basketball game, when he saw something that piqued his professional curiosity.

Ehlers, a staff sergeant and medical training instructor for the Wisconsin Army National Guard, watched as longtime UW athletic trainer Henry Perez-Guerra came onto the court to tend to an injured player.

“Henry quickly evaluated a guy who had an ankle injury and it was a matter of 45 seconds and they had him up and were taking him off the floor,” Ehlers recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t my medics do that in the field?'”

Ehlers, an Army medic for seven years, began to organize his thoughts and devise a plan of action for his volunteer charges.

“Over the past 15-ish years now we’ve been at war and we’ve learned great lessons about trauma medicine,” he said. “We pound into their head every year ‘trauma, trauma, trauma.’ They can treat people with missing arms, legs, shot in the chest.

“But when it comes to the fundamentals of simple clinical skills — how do we evaluate a sprained knee or a sprained ankle or a shoulder or back injury — we don’t have a set training plan on how to execute those skills.”

So Ehlers, a 37-year-old who grew up in Hudson, contacted Denny Helwig, the assistant athletic director for sports medicine at Wisconsin, in December of 2014.

In an email, Ehlers outlined how the two staffs — medics from the Wisconsin Army National Guard and UW Sports Medicine personnel — take a similar approach to diagnosing and treating concussions.

“I’m looking for an environment where I can teach my medics clinical skills, but put them in an environment where they’re going to learn,” Ehlers wrote.

“The more Tim and I talked about it — the medic training and our training — we thought it would be a good way for their people to come down and observe,” Helwig said. “The same people pulling from the same resources in terms of care for concussions and it went on from there.”

For the better part of a year, UW Athletics and the Wisconsin Army National Guard have been working together to improve their instincts and vital handiwork.

There have been multiple exchanges of personnel — UW athletic trainers trekking to Fort McCoy and Army medics volunteering to come to Madison — all under the guise of education.

The biggest chapter in that process is being written throughout August as the Badgers stage their preseason football camp at Camp Randall Stadium.

UW athletic trainer Kyle Gibson, one of the exchange coordinators, said 13 Army medics will come in small groups to observe one of the more strenuous periods for medical attention by the UW sports medicine personnel.

“That’s when we see a lot of injuries,” he said of the three-week training camp, which includes five two-a-day practice sessions. It began Aug. 8 and runs through the season opener Sept. 3.

The month-long exercise comes on the heels of two trips to Fort McCoy, located just west of Tomah, by UW athletic trainers.

Four went up in the first wave “and they came back with rave reviews on how realistic it is,” Gibson said, describing how $120,000 mannequins can have their heart rates and blood flow altered based on the treatment circumstances.

The second group, including Gibson, Perez-Guerra and Michael Moll, the primary athletic trainer for football, visited Fort McCoy and provided an overview on evaluation techniques to 160 medics.

“We’re not making them into athletic trainers; they’re not making us into medics,” Helwig noted. “It’s just an information-sharing situation.”

Helwig said the program that began with a discussion on shared concussion protocol is evolving into something much bigger.

“We realized that a lot of their training is in trauma — as you could imagine — and not so much in some of the, if you will, minor things like sprains and strains and things like that,” he said. “We occasionally deal with trauma, but not to the extent that they do.

“The whole thought was that we could help them understand a little bit better how to look at an ankle sprain, how to look at a muscle strain so that they can work with their people.

“We’re both interested in performance, obviously. Ours is on the field or court or whatever. Theirs is performance in the (battle) field.”

There are other similarities. Athletic trainers and medics share a like — read: stressful — evaluation process in the field. They both have a chain of command involved in every decision. They also become emotionally invested in their patients.

“We live in a what-if type of life where, ‘What if this happens? Are we prepared? Have we done the training that we need to do to be prepared?'” Gibson said.

There’s a major difference, though.

“They’re dealing with life-and-death situations and major trauma,” Moll said of the medics. “We’re dealing with on-the-field injuries, which can be significant, but really, it’s a matter of us trying to get guys back as quickly and safely as possible.”

Not only are medics dealing with mortal injuries, their lives are often at risk.

“It gives us perspective that, hey, this is really just football,” Moll said. “It’s important to everyone, but it’s much different.”

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“We live in a what-if type of life where, ‘What if this happens? Are we prepared? Have we done the training that we need to do to be prepared?'” said Gibson (left).

Ehlers, who was deployed as a senior medic to Afghanistan in 2012 and ’13, said the teaching format grabs the attention of his charges who might otherwise be cavalier about the experience.

“You don’t see ACL, MCL (knee) injuries sitting in a hospital somewhere,” he said. “But you do see it out at training events.”

Such as a high-profile football practice where the participants and their efforts make headlines. In addition to injuries, medics will see UW sports medicine personnel initiate preventative care before practice and the after-care when the daily session is over.

“You put them in an environment like this where they’re seeing the people they look up to — you don’t get a chance to interact with a T.J. Watt or a Vince Biegel or people like that,” Ehlers said.

The cooperative plan calls for another rotation of medics to come to town in November to spend time with the men’s basketball team and in January to observe UW athletic trainers at work with men’s hockey. Visiting parties are there strictly to observe and ask questions.

“It’s a great educational experience for my soldiers to come down (to Madison) and learn,” Ehlers said.

All in all, it took 23 months for this idea to go from planting to harvest.

“It started with a conversation with my leadership,” Ehlers said. “I asked if I could do it. They said, ‘It’s your baby. If you want to make it happen, try and make it happen.'”

Along the way, Ehlers met with football coach Paul Chryst and UW Director of AthleticsBarry Alvarez and got their blessings.

“They all have gone out of their way of saying they’re in full support of having these medics come down here and interact with their players and learn,” Ehlers said, adding UW officials have been “absolutely amazing” in their support of the project.

“It’s a lot of time and effort, but it’s going to be 100-percent rewarding when I see my soldiers finally get to start rolling through this fall,” Ehlers said.

Helwig described Ehlers as “an honest, straight-forward guy who obviously, genuinely cares for what he does.”

According to Ehlers, there is no monetary investment from either party.

“It’s just a partnership based on mutual respect,” he said.

When Ehlers was in Afghanistan in late 2012, the base was visited by a group of touring NFL players. One was J.J. Watt, a former UW standout who now stars for the Houston Texans.

At one point, Ehlers approached Watt, shook his hand and thanked him for all he’s done on behalf of Wisconsin.

Fast forward to the spring of 2016. Ehlers was attending a UW spring practice session at the McClain Facility. By chance, so was Watt, a Pewaukee native whose brothers, Derek and T.J., followed him to Wisconsin.

Ehlers again approached J.J., who instantly recalled their first meeting. A brief photo session ensued.

It’s funny what can happen when a good idea takes wings.

“It’s a milestone in my career to build a partnership with the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Army National Guard,” Ehlers said.

The payback goes in both directions.

“This way we can do some very good community service,” Helwig said.

“I think it’s a great program because anytime we can give back as civilians to the military, we look for those opportunities,” Gibson said.

“We can learn from them. They can learn from us. It’s a no-brainer of a program.”

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Louisiana Monroe Hosts Athletic Training Seminar

Article reposted from The News Star
Author:  Adam Hunsucker

Disaster is always one play away in football. We aren’t talking about personal fouls or turnovers in this context either.

It’s said all the time that football is a collision sport. Collisions make injury inevitable, and when it does happen, the people in charge of various diagnoses and treatment have to be prepared.

It was with that in mind that ULM head athletic trainer Jason “J.D.” Dunavant organized an in-service for his staff and certified athletic trainers on the high-school level from across northeastern Louisiana last Friday.

The topics covered during the session included cervical spine injuries, transportation of injured players via spine board, and safely removing football equipment for medical transport.

“We do this yearly and our staff will practice throughout the year to make sure we’re on the same page,” Dunavant said. “Everything we do goes back to the best practices in our field to make sure we follow things that are evidence based, fundamentally sound and up to speed with current trends as far as the medical community is concerned.

“We have a best practices document that we review with our old staff and new staff just to make sure everybody’s on the same page because the last thing we want is to have brand new people scattered all over the place when we need to figure something out right now.”

The main focus of the in service was spinal injuries, a topic that hit home with Dunavant during the 2015 college football season when Southern University wide receiver Devon Gales was paralyzed following an on-field collision in a game at the University of Georgia.

ULM had played Georgia the week prior and the Warhawks are set to host Southern in the 2016 season opener.

“That’s something we saw and that was prevalent to us so it was fresh in our minds,” Dunavant said. “Also we’ve had situations up here on the high-school level at Franklin Parish and Union Parish, so that’s why we invited the high schools here to go over what we consider best practices and exchange ideas and thoughts.”

Opening night of the 2015 high school football season was marred by the tragic death of Franklin Parish High football player Tyrell Cameron following a collision during a punt return.

Cameron’s death came two years after Union Parish’s Jaleel Gipson injured his spinal cord in a routine tackling drill. Gipson was taken to the LSU Health Sciences Center in Sheveport, where he died after being taken off life support.

I think it’s paramount that the people who are taking care of these kids understand exactly what goes into it,” said Phil Shaw, the head athletic trainer at Ouachita Parish High School and former head trainer at ULM.

“The parents need to know these guys are trained in that and J.D. putting together an in service like this is great because you’ve got to have a group effort between the training staff, school staff, fire department and EMS when unfortunate things like this happen.”

The Ouachita Parish School System offers an athletic-training curriculum to students that includes an extracurricular activity component. Both Ouachita Parish and the Monroe City School District have on-site athletic trainers.

“In the secondary school setting you don’t have full-time staffers and GA’s so you’re relying on student trainers and coaches. We’re fortunate at Ouachita that all our coaches are first aid and CPR certified so if something were to happen, it won’t be the first time they’ve seen it,” Shaw said.

“Football season is here so what we’ll do is take this training back to school and in-service next week after practice.”

Follow Adam on Twitter @adam_hunsucker

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South Dakota Athletic Trainers and EMTs Collaborate on Spine Boarding

Article reposted from KSFY
Author: Jake Iverson

The football season is just around the corner, but athletes aren’t the only ones practicing this offseason. Athletic trainers from across Sioux Falls gathered this week to collaborate on a spine-boarding workshop at the Avera Sports Institute.

It’s not everyday you see both Avera and Sanford on the same playing field. But today, the two health giants, specifically their athletic trainers, are putting aside their differences to train together.

“You want to rotate it into neutral alignment.” instructs Dustin Gebur, an athletic trainer with Avera and one of the leaders of the workshop.

This is a Spine-boarding workshop. Hopefully, the first of many to come.

“It was just a good opportunity for all of us to work together. Because inevitably on a Friday night or Saturday morning during a football game, there are going to be providers from all entities. So we really all need to work together during those events and we want to make sure we are all prepared prior to that.” said Gebur.

This training isn’t necessarily new, it’s more of a refresher course for an injury that both athletic trainers and paramedics thankfully don’t treat that often.

“Absolutely! You know when you talk about injuries to the spine it’s something that can devastate a person for the rest of their life! So even the slightest movement, you have to be careful and precise and make sure you practice enough so that you know exactly how to move a patient and you don’t do any further damage than what is already done.” said Andrew Ideker with Paramedics Plus.

Any injury on the field hardly ever shows up in a textbook the exact same way, so each run-through at the workshop has to be tweaked here and there.

“We went through some different scenarios, whether we remove the facemask only or if we remove all equipment and what criteria determines what we are doing then. So we went through all those different scenarios, we did one with a patient face-down and face-up. It obviously differentiates what you do when you approach the patient as well.” said Gebur.

The practice being done today is for when an athlete doesn’t get up from that big hit. But this practice is also being done before any high schooler puts on the helmet and pads.

“As an athletic trainer you just never know what you are going to come across, so you have to be prepared for everything at any given day or night because it happens at practice! Not just events and games.” said Gebur.

Football has seen several recent changes to help make the game safer, but anytime you have two players crashing into one another injuries will happen. Rest assured, parents and athletes can just look to eyes and ears on the sidelines and the people doing their part to ensure everyone can safely enjoy those Friday night lights.

“It’s great, from us at Paramedics Plus we work closely with both hospitals so it’s nice to get to come and practice with both of them as well on the sports side of things.” said Ideker.

The goal is to keep the spine-boarding workshop going each year to make sure all athletic trainers stay on the same page and up-to-date with all the new research and techniques. For more information just call 877-AT-AVERA.

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Pirates Athletic Trainers Host PLAY Campaign

Article reposted from CBS Pittsburgh
Author: Dave Crawley


It takes more than natural talent to be a Major League Baseball player, or to simply get in shape, that fact was reinforced under a blazing sun at PNC Park Wednesday.

The head didn’t slow them down though. The “Play” campaign conducts events for kids in all 30 major league parks.

“Get the kids active and on the field, and meeting with the athletic trainers and the great staff they have, and really enjoying the ballpark overall,” said Sam Radbil, the campaign’s coordinator.

Trainer Todd Tomczyk says the aim is to reinforce play.

“Reinforce backyard play, reinforce being physically active,” said Tomczyk. “You don’t have to have the skill sets that professional baseball players have. But being active is one important attribute of the youth.”

It’s not just for kids. Andrew McCutchen and other players go through the very same drills.

Cross country runner Brianna Nicholas say it’s helpful.

“It keeps your body moving, and helps build up more muscles,” she said.

The Pirates staff filled the field with exercises. And, fittingly, to close the event was Pirates closer, Mark Melancon.

“When I was your age, it was important to be outside, and play all the sports that you can play, and I’m sure you guys are doing that, right?” he said.

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Wisconsin Athletic Trainers Prepare for Emergencies

Article reposted from WSAWTV7
Author: Rebecca Cardenas

Athletic trainers across the state are better prepared to help your child on the football field in a crisis, after a hands-on training session at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield Wednesday.

“We have to, as athletic trainers, put ourselves in situations where we’re prepared to deal with the worst thing that can possibly happen on the football field,” Athletic Training Manger Jim Nesbit explained at Wednesdays session.

A response time goal of 15 seconds brings athletic trainers from across the state to the clinic to train every year. “Making these things as close to real life is really the whole point of this training,” Nesbit said.

Nesbit spent Wednesday overseeing licensed trainers while they worked through six possible crisis situation on the field.

“It’s important especially this time of year with football season around the corner that we get hands one with some of the new on-field protocol,” he explained.

One new piece of protocol details prevention, recognition, and treatment of heat illnesses. Heat stroke is one of the leading causes of sudden death during sport, according to the National Athletic Trainer’s Association.

“Some of those injuries are life-threatening and fortunately, those are relatively rare, so we don’t get to practice them very often,” Sam Voigt, a licensed athletic trainer, said.

Voigt explained communication is just as important for athletic trainers off the field as it is for the athletes on it.

“…So we can manage injuries in a very timely fashion and then make sure we assure a safe return to play,” he said.

“Those athletes who are participating really are in our charge while we’re there,” Nesbit said. “So we do our best throught practice and scenarios like this to make sure that if something happens, God forbid, we can take care of them.”

An estimated 3.8 million concussions occur each year in the U.S. as a result of sports and physical activity, according to NATA.

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South Carolina High School Hosts Emergency Management Training

Article reposted from Live5News
Author: Josh Roberson

Football season is ramping up and that means learning to know what to do if a student athlete gets injured.

McLeod Sports Medicine stopped by Mullins High School Wednesday to go over what parents, coaches and teammates should know if that does occur.

“We’ve done a lot of this training just with EMS, but our kids have never seen this and our coaches have never seen this. We talk it through and we practice it all, but to have it live on the field, to actually practice what would actually happen, is a great learning experience for them,” said Jessica Lowe, a McLeod athletic trainer.

McLeod Sports Medicine employees took a proactive stance, running through real-life scenarios dealing with critical injuries in the neck, head and spine.

“Those are all serious injuries that have to be taken very seriously, so that’s why we bring the EMTs out here and this year we decided to involve the McLeod Air Reach.” said trainer Mike Rice.

The team went over specifics, like how to remove equipment without disrupting or further injuring the player, and how to remove the player from the field safely using stretchers.

“They’ll basically give us a signal of what we need to bring, and then we’ll come out with everything we need. And then if we need to remove the shoulder pads or the helmet, they’ll assist us with doing that, depending on what injury they have.” said EMS Director Joey Price.

The physical trainers said they hope they never have to put this training into action, but if the situation arises, they will be calm and ready to act come fall.

 

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Lindley Elected Vice President of the NATA

Article reposted from Traverse City Record Eagle
Author: Traverse City Record Eagle

Suttons Bay native Tory Lindley has been elected vice president of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.

Lindley has worked in the collegiate setting throughout his 23-year career and currently serves as associate athletic director, director of athletic training services and head athletic trainer at Northwestern University, where he has worked since 2002. He previously served as head athletic trainer at Eastern Michigan and Hamline University and as a staff athletic trainer at Michigan State.

Lindley was the recipient of the 2012 Illinois Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame and the 2012 NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award. He received the GLATA Golden Pinnacle Award, the district associations’ highest honor, in March.

He was also recognized as the 2012 Division I Head Athletic Trainer of the Year. He is currently an associate editor for the journal Athletic Training & Sports Health Care and is the NATA liaison to the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education. Lindley has been an NATA board member since 2014.

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Texas Athletic Trainers Gear Up for New School Year

Article reposted from 12News
Author: Leah Durain

Athletic trainers have an important job. They work with athletes in injury prevention, emergency response and rehabilitation. Local trainers at the high school and collegiate level are gearing up for the upcoming school year.

One item on the agenda is taking a continuing education class. A session in Beaumont is offering local trainers a chance to complete their coursework close to home… while fellowshipping with neighboring athletic staff members.

It took place at Christus Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth Hospital Wednesday with speakers from Acadian Ambulance Services, Beaumont Bone and Joint Institute, Lamar University and Christus Health. One portion of the day focused on working with medical personnel in the case of a severe injury.

“We’re tyring to help work the relations between EMTs and the athletic trainers since we work so closely together during football season,” said Shawn Clinger with Christus Sports Medicine Southeast Texas. “It helps us build relationships with doctors and … EMT.”

The class gets the trainers into gear, preparing them for whatever the school year holds. David Kovner is a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Lamar University. He works with the football team and sees a lot happen out on the field.

“Anything from finger dislocation to laceration, like a cut on someones leg,” said Kovner. “Head-to-head collisions are always not fun to watch as an athletic trainer because you never want to have to spineboard someone.”

A few seats over, Port Neches Groves athletic trainer Ricardo Serna says it’s much of the same at the high school level.

“It’s a lot of minor stuff really that we see. The major stuff, we hope we don’t see,” said Serna. “Most of the time it’s a lot of muscle injuries, a lot of ligament injuries, things like that but that’s why we come here… learn how to deal with those things and try to get the kids back on the field as quickly as we can.”

The trainers were also able to take a CPR recertification course.

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Petition Raises Concerns About Proposed Educational Standards in Athletic Training

Article reposted from iPetitions
Author: Paul Geisler

CLICK HERE TO READ AND/OR SIGN THE PETITION

Date: July 19, 2016
To: NATA Board of Directors, NATA Executive Committee for Education, NATA Education Advancement Committee, and NATA Professional Education Committee
Re: Grave Concerns for the future of the Athletic Training Profession
From: Concerned Athletic Training Professionals
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Given the current events and conversations regarding the transition to the master’s degree and the newly proposed CAATE Standards and educational content, we the undersigned wish to take this opportunity to express our collective concerns and apprehension for the future of our educational organization, programs and larger profession.

Specifically, we wish to bring to your attention that we are troubled by some of the recent practices employed and working documents intended to direct and structure our impending transformation to the professional master’s degree in Athletic Training and the future of our profession.

SYNOPSIS of KEY POINTS:

1. It is our opinion that many of the newly proposed standards for educational content far exceed most, if not all state practice act guidelines and specifications, and if approved establishes a dramatically new professional scope of practice and body of knowledge for athletic training, without compelling evidence or rationale to do so and without full consideration of the many legislative, professional and interprofessional domino effects likely to occur as a result.

2. Many of the newly proposed skills and knowledge standards clearly “belong” to other healthcare practices (mostly medicine), and bring with them drastic increases in both responsibility and liability for athletic trainers. If accepted/implemented, they indicate a clear and aggressive expansion of our “claimed” body of knowledge and professional practice, all without the disciplinary or professional legacy for doing so.

3. Some of the mechanisms and positions projected by the CAATE have been poorly communicated and authenticated to the larger professional body, especially as it has regarded seeking, implementing and reporting relevant evidence or professional consensus and insight from interested and vested parties (on a large and representative scale). It is not “change” and progress that concerns us, but rather we are deeply concerned with “how” future change has and is being implemented by a very small minority of professionals working on behalf of us all, the larger profession.

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Detailed Issues of Concern:

A. Directionally, we are at a minimum concerned with the following issues, proposals or intentions inherent within the 2 CAATE standards documents (SD1 =Operational, SD2 = Curricular Content) currently open for review and commentary by the professional body:

1. Significantly expanded Clinical Education Standards (#22, 23, 24 in SD1) that not only significantly stretch program resources and potentialities, but also greatly expand our professional domains and practice. Requiring AT programs to provide clinical experiences for all students in occupational, leisure, military, industrial settings (23), and to provide “sufficient experiences” in a truly authentic medical rotation/location (24) further implies a stretching of our domain of practice and expertise and infringes upon other health care professionals and their well established scopes and professional bodies of knowledge, and target patients. In order for those myriad experiences to be of authentic value and meaning for our students, the educational components required to prepare students for more intense general medical and occupational medicine (for example) are significant and for the most part prohibitive, given the existing depth and breadth of the requirements. As an aside, the central job of entry-level education is to create competent clinicians that can quickly progress to greater levels of expertise and acquire job specific skills and knowledge germane to the setting and expectations; and to prepare them for “post professional” or “advanced” education in chosen domains of practice. These new standards go well beyond our basic and traditional scope of practice and place significant and undue burdens on educational programs and educators. Competent clinicians are competence clinicians—they are capable of performing the skills sets and have the knowledge to effectively carry out the domains of practice in which they are trained (i.e., low back pain in an athlete requires the same base and applied skill set to manage low back pain in a military athlete or industrial patient, only with a different context and the application of sound clinical reasoning); on the job training is different than entry-level training and competent clinicians can adapt and transform their skills and knowledge for various populations upon graduation. In short, the entry-level education system cannot possibly educate all students for all possible jobs, all possible skills sets, or an ever increasing and expansive body of medical knowledge. Ironically, the NATA continues to support specialty certifications and the CAATE continues to accredit specialized residencies, indicating a clear need, time and place for more specific and advanced skill sets for athletic trainers interested in, or needing such skills for their vocational settings and aspirations.

2. Standard 35 (in SD2) calls for competence and decision making skills with “…blood work, urinalysis, and EKG/ECG” diagnostics. The amount of time and practice it takes to become “competent” in these skills far surpasses the structure and scope of entry-level athletic training. Further, it is yet another example of propositionally expanding far beyond our professional borders and into territories of other, established and legally entitled professions with FAR more education than ATs. In short, many of these are skills and knowledge central to medical practice writ large; and medicine, nursing and PA are sure (and right) to have serious concerns and complaints with this proposed expansion of scope of practice at both state and federal levels. At a time in which we are also asking for our healthcare colleagues to work with us on IPE and IPP initiatives and training, we find it problematic that on one hand we want to cooperate with them, and on the other we want to “do what they do”.

3. In our opinions, proposing that we teach future ATs to “ID and select appropriate pharmacological agents…” (39) and to “give medications…” (40) (both in SD2) effectively equates the prescribing and administration of OTC and/or prescription medicines, or in other words,practicing medicine. The medical, pharmacology, nursing (NP) and physician assistant (PA) associations and professions and state legislative bodies will be extremely (if they already are not) disturbed to see that we are intending to venture into these practice domains (not to mention the FDA, or the DEA). Not only will these standards open up the existing 48 AT state practice acts with contentious challenges and opposition from other professional and legislative bodies, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per state, but it will also put the entire AT educational process and mechanism under intense pressure and scrutiny by our healthcare colleagues and elected officials (and with good reason). Further, even if it were professionally appropriate for ATs to be choosing and administering prescription medications, there is a practico-educational component that bears attention, as well—AT programs don’t have the time or space to adequately and competently educate “entry-level athletic training students” in the knowledge required to be proficient in these 2 Pharm standards, as this would clearly require AT LEAST 8-12 credit hours of chemistry pre-requisite coursework (Gen Chem, BIOChem, OrgChem), and likely another 8-12 credit hours of actual pharmacology knowledge and practice in the professional phase.

4. Standard 41 (SG2) calls for the inclusion of cardiovascular pharmacology skills, joint reductions, and suturing to be added to our educational package. This too would create additional professional domains of practice for AT that far exceed current practice, and if required, these would demand extensive knowledge and training that most AT programs would find very difficult to implement or do well. Knowing and using drugs for the myriad cardiac conditions is indeed a dangerous and high-risk arena to be in without adequate training and expertise. Performing reductions without pre/post imaging is dangerous and problematic with many joints (elbow, hip, ankle, knee), and suturing without pain reducing medication (injections) is inhumane, introduces serious risk of infection and tissue damage and can be accompanied by serious cosmetic issues in aesthetically pertinent areas and contexts. All of these proposed new skills are clearly outside the current scope of practice for most Entry-level athletic training contexts (except for those ATs working under the supervision of an MD who has taught and authorized them to perform, and if they are in a state whose practice act allows such practice) and are clearly strong and legitimate points of conflict for many state practice acts. Further, they place at risk our established but tender “interprofessional relations” with PT, medicine, PA and nursing (at least). At the risk of repetition, skills like these that happen legally and under MD supervision are further examples of advanced or specialty training, and in our opinion do not belong under the banner of entry-level athletic training.

5. Together, the proposed “content” standards in SD2 (and highlighted above) represent a fairly radical expansion of skills, knowledge and practice for athletic training—both educationally and professionally. We are not opposed to logical and strategic growth for the profession and are not advocating for stagnation, but this expansion of our professional “body of knowledge” into other professional domains, across many boundaries and well beyond our legal, established and historical scope represents to us a shortsighted and dangerous attempt to expand our profession, to become “something else”, something that we are not. At best, these proposals are clearly blurring the lines between “entry-level practice” and “advanced practice”, calling for ALL future athletic trainers to become competent with ALL possible job settings, tasks and domains of practice (a futile effort). At worst, they are calling for a completely new scope of professional practice, one that dangerously embarks into much deeper and more expanded exercises associated with the larger practice of “medicine”. In fact, it can even be said that these collective proposals (both documents) are passive calls for athletic trainers to completely remove their selves from the “under the supervision of a physician” clause that constitutes and undergirds at least 48 different state practice acts (thus becoming an NATA Code of Ethics issue?). For representatives of the CAATE and its various subcommittees to ignore or dismiss legislative concerns over our current and future practice acts, and how or if they will be impacted is in our view, short sighted, naïve and disrespectful to our health care colleagues, our legislative bodies and our public with which we have a social contract. Not only do we question the proposed and vast expansion of domain strategy in the name of “why not”, but the practical and legal aspects are equally troubling, as well. If approved and put into motion, all 48 state practice acts will be open for considerable scrutiny and debate, which can very likely turn into an extremely costly and vulnerable risk for our profession. It is conceivable that in the end, this multipronged border crossing will backfire upon the athletic training profession and its many dedicated and highly competent practitioners. We find it ironic that our profession has debated on several occasions now, and has subsequently put to bed the argument over our professional “name”, yet here we are now considering to add additional amounts of “medical” skill and knowledge to our educational and professional bodies; all without any sort of evidence or compelling rational for doing so. Further, in this evidence-based culture that we are actively embracing, we find it bothersome that very few of the proposals under discussion can be considered as “evidence-based” or informed.

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B. Operationally, we are also concerned with the following issues surrounding the communication, construction and proliferation of the new and proposed direction for the MS degree requirements and construction:

1. Once the decision to transition to the MS degree was made and despite the various exigencies related to that process, it was widely promoted to the professional body that doing so would in sentiment and practicality a) respect program autonomy and creativity, b) allow us to slow down our educational processes in order to “educate better”, c) have more time to fill in some gaps in our curricula and procedures, and d) do a better job of producing more expert clinicians. Yes, there were inevitably going to be some additions, some professional growth (like clinical research and immersive clinical education), but nowhere was there widespread or open discussion of an impending or desired significant expansion in content or scope. Nowhere do we recall seeing or hearing a conversation about changing who we are, or what we do. The promise of moving to an MS degree was largely sold upon the idea that “we could have more mature students for a longer time”, “we could develop ‘slower’ and deeper curricula”, “we could provide room for program creativity and marks of distinction”, and “to increase retention and professional commitment”; all so that we could do a better job of educating future athletic trainers with all that we require now (plus a few additions). Given the concerns outlined with the new knowledge and skills being proposed in SD2, and the expanded policies for clinical & didactic education proposed in SD1, we feel as though we are not currently being presented with what was promised once the MS degree transition was announced, but rather a whole new degree, curricular structure, and professional vision and scope, one being articulated seemingly and more disturbingly by a very small groups of individuals in our profession. Our stance is that all programs need to make the transition to the MS degree level and have time and autonomy to fine tune our programs BEFORE we start making multiple and significant changes to the content and structure of our professional curriculums.

2. After the degree decision was made by the Strategic Partners the subsequent stages of decision making are less clear to the membership. To our knowledge, not very many established professional educators and programs were consulted to ascertain what the new MS degree should do, and not do; to ascertain what works, and what does not work; to find out what we should keep and what we should leave behind; to help paint the picture of what the new MS degree in AT could look like. To our knowledge, large, representative samples of established EL educators or scholars were not consulted about new directions, effective methods, or critical gaps that need to be filled; nor are we aware of any kind of self-study conducted to first see how we might best go about transitioning in an evidence-informed, consensual manner. Further, we don’t recall seeing or receiving an open call, ballot process or distributed volunteer process for interested and qualified education professionals to get involved in the work that needed to be done, or for opinions to be sought and assessed (before the 2 standards documents appeared). In short, we are disappointed that this entire process is apparently being driven by what amounts to a couple of “ghost” committees within the CAATE, that to be frank and with no disrespect directed at those involved in the process, most people have no idea about the constitution or make-up of those committees, or how or when they came to be. It may just be the “optics” of it all, but even then it is safe to say that very few AT educators were brought into the loop on this process and thus, we are largely feeling as though we are not “part of the process”, at least not from the ground up.

3. Intentionally or not, the CAATE effectively employed a “divide & conquer” strategy at the most recent 2016 NATA Convention by failing to set, notify and advertise the meeting times, places, and details of opens sessions that were promised to be part of the “democratic process” on the transformation issue. Emails were not received by MANY AT educators regarding the time, day, or location of open CAATE sessions, the details were not printed in the Convention manual (as it always has been), sessions were limited to 1-2, 60’ on the admin standards and 2, 60’ sessions on the content standards, a registration process was required, the room chosen was small with limited seating available, and the events were not even held in the Convention Hall (preventing passerby and drop in awareness). For the magnitude and depth of the issues at hand, the opportunities to communicate with CAATE on the MANY complex and bothersome issues was woefully conceived, communicated and conducted. In the end, FAR too many athletic trainers were denied ample opportunity to be heard, or to listen to the critical issues at hand; to take part in the conversation.

4. Given that the larger professional body of athletic trainers was not privy to all of the commentary submitted to the CAATE during their open comment on the MS Degree or how that data was processed (precedent), we are now concerned with what will happen with commentary provided for SD1 and SD2, and quite frankly do not fully trust what will transpire with the subsequent commentary data that is/will be provided by the professional body on version 1 of the standards, and how that data will be tabulated and incorporated into subsequent steps. Because of the gravity of the situation, the implications for our collective future practice, and because of the considerable vested interests we posses as professionals and educators, we feel that this critical data should be made available in some form to the public (professional body of ATs) as soon as it has been tabulated and condensed into such a format.

Given these considerable concerns and perspectives, we the undersigned ask that the members of the NATA Board of Directors, the ECE, EAC and the PEC take into consideration the concerned voices of the many, of the hundreds of dedicated and committed professionals that make up the athletic training profession, and that you seriously ponder what our collective futures might look like before allowing the CAATE to move forward with its current proposals and the future it has tentatively chartered. We hereby ask that the NATA BOD take up this petition for conversation and consideration, and that subsequently the BOD consider both the sentiment and content of this petition in immediate conversations with any and all professionals currently engaged with the transition process.

Respectfully signed and submitted, Athletic Trainers Concerned for our Future

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Athletic Training Fellows Honored

Article reposted from The Moultrie Observer
Author: The Moultrie Observer

The Vereen Rehabilitation Center’s Sports Medicine program celebrated a milestone this summer. The first class of Athletic Training Fellows was honored with a reception held at Ashburn Hill Plantation.

The program recruited certified athletic trainers interested in continuing their education while gaining real world experience at the same time, according to a press release from Colquitt Regional Medical Center, with which the rehabilitation center is affiliated. Once selected, the students enrolled in a master’s degree program at the University of North Georgia and became an integral part of the Vereen Center staff. They were placed in high schools partnering with the Vereen Center and provided athletic training services to student athletes. With the conclusion of the two-year program the Fellows now hold Master of Science Degrees in Physical Education with a concentration in Exercise Science.

Graduating were Jessica Herndon, Tyler Johnston and Rob Reyburn.

Herndon received her undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina and is now employed by the Vereen Center as a certified athletic trainer and wellness coordinator.

Johnston received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mount Union in Ohio and is now employed by Frostburg State University in Maryland as an assistant athletic trainer.

Reyburn received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and is now employed by Optim Healthcare as the head athletic trainer at Tattnall County High School.

“We could not have found better individuals to help launch our sports medicine program,” said Athletic Training Services Coordinator Jaclyn Donovan.  “We are proud of their accomplishments and excited for their futures as athletic trainers.”

Athletic trainers are highly qualified health-care professionals who collaborate with physicians and coaches regarding the health and well-being of athletes. Often spotted on the sidelines, athletic trainers work to prevent injuries and provide emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention, rehabilitation of injuries and management of medical conditions for athletes.

Vereen Center athletic trainers are nationally certified by the National Athletic Trainers Association Board of Certification and are licensed by the State of Georgia.

“This has been an exceptional program,” said Colquitt Regional CEO Jim Matney. “We have provided a valuable educational opportunity for each of the Athletic Training Fellows, but the real winners here are the student athletes in Southwest Georgia. Many of the schools in our region do not have the resources to provide their students with a full-time athletic trainer so we are able to provide that service for them.”

For Colquitt Regional Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Bass, the program has been a solid success.

“We began with three schools who were interested in partnering with us. Now, two years later, we have nine schools that have asked for our services,” Bass said. “This is definitely a program that I am proud of and it has been a great addition to the services already provided at the Vereen Center. It allows us to provide comprehensive care to student athletes.”

In addition to the Sports Medicine Program, the Vereen Center also offers physical, occupational, speech and aquatic therapies in a state-of-the-art facility located on the campus of Colquitt Regional. A Wound Care Clinic and The Learning Center, which uses the Fast ForWord program to enhance the learning process for students, are also offered onsite.

For more information on any of the services provided please visit www.vereencenter.com or call (229) 890-3553.