Tag: Banner Health

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Arizona AT helps high school hockey players

Sarah Schodrof, a certified athletic trainer at the Banner Concussion Center in downtown Phoenix, has a new group of patients: high school hockey players.

This summer, Banner Health partnered with the Arizona High School Hockey Association, a youth hockey league, to educate and to raise concussion awareness amongst its student-athletes. Schodrof spent two weeks visiting the Valley ice rinks to discuss concussion protocol with the league’s coaches and staff.

In August, about 500 of AHSHA’s players underwent concussion baseline testing, a procedure that is used to gather information about an individual’s normal brain function. Once a player is suspected of sustaining a concussion, his or her post-injury results can be compared to their initial baseline test.

Visual and verbal memory, motor-speed and reaction time are tested, framing a detailed picture of how an individual player thinks.

“We can compare everyone to the normal data, but that’s not how everyone thinks,” Schodrof said. “Everyone is different. Now, we have an individual baseline for every one of these 500 players to get them back on their own pace.”

This new partnership is a part of the recent concussion management procedures AHSHA implemented. The organization’s injury guidelines stem from USA Hockey as well as the ImPACT, or Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing program, which is a computerized concussion diagnostic test the athletic trainers use to determine when it is safe for a player to return. ImPACT testing is used by multiple collegiate and professional teams.

“Our main concern is the player’s safety,” said Mike Steffens, AHSHA’s injury management chair. “We want to see proper medical follow-up take place, even if the parents or player doesn’t believe medical care is necessary.”

Steffens said the team managers and coaches are to be the “eyes and ears.” AHSHA requires coaches to receive mandatory first-aid training and to complete the National Federation of State High School Associations online concussion course.

In addition, Schodrof and her fellow Banner Health athletic trainers taught AHSHA’s coaches on what to look for in a concussed athlete. If they see a big hit, she said, the player needs to be called back to be checked.

The trainers also provided them with evaluation cards that coaches can use on the bench when deciding if player can hop on the next shift or if more medical care is needed.

However, the “be tough and play through it” mentality athletes are taught becomes a challenge when trying to catch and treat a concussion early-on.

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“Players will often try to minimize any problem so they can continue playing,” Steffens said. “So our coaches have to be watching the players closely. The ideal situation would be for the player to take themselves out of the game but that doesn’t always happen.”

Before the first puck-drop of the season, the league’s players sign a form agreeing not to return to play following a blow to the head or body that results in concussion-like symptoms and to resume ice time only after being cleared by a doctor.

“We try to stress with the players that the earlier we detect these things, the sooner we are able to get them back on the ice,” Schodrof said. “Even if you’re not feeling okay, don’t be afraid to say so. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to pull you from the rest of your season, but it can help you in the long run.”

As a Chicago native and Blackhawks fan who grew up watching family members play hockey, the Valley ice rinks gave her an unexpected taste of home.

“Moving out here to Arizona, I never really thought that my career would bring me towards working with concussions, let alone working with hockey a little more specifically,” Schodrof said. “I really like working with a sport that I’m familiar with. I’m able to be a part of something that’s developing, by raising concussion awareness and for hockey here.”

Go here for an inside look at Banner Health’s concussion testing.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/11/03/banner-helping-raise-concussion-awareness-hs-hockey/75116344/