Project

Education:

To become a certified athletic trainer, a student must graduate with bachelors or master’s degree from an accredited professional athletic training education program and pass a comprehensive test administered by the Board of Certification, or BOC. Once certified, they must meet continuing education requirements in order to remain certified. Athletic trainers must also work in collaboration with a physician. The ATC credential and the BOC requirements are currently recognized by 49 states plus the District of Columbia for eligibility and regulation of the practice of athletic trainers. The credibility of the BOC program and the ATC credential it awards are supported by three pillars:

- the BOC certification examination

- the BOC Standards of Professional Practice, and Disciplinary Guidelines and Procedures

- continuing competence (education) requirements

To be certified, an individual must demonstrate that he or she is an athletic trainer capable of performing the required duties without a threat of harm to the public. The knowledge, skills, and abilities required for competent performance as an entry-level athletic trainer fall into three categories:

Understanding, applying, and analyzing;
Knowledge and decision-making;
Special performance abilities.

BOC-certified athletic trainers are educated, trained and evaluated in five major practice domains:

Injury and illness prevention and wellness promotion
Examination, assessment, and diagnosis
Immediate and emergency care
Therapeutic intervention
Health care administration and professional responsibility

Rehabilitation:

The rehabilitation process is devised to help people whose daily functioning has been impaired, to regain the maximum functional ability. Rehabilitation can be conducted in the community or through intensive hospital programs. Here are a few examples of different types of programs:

1. Orthopedic rehabilitation: following fractures, surgery to the joints, severe joint inflammations, and amputations

2. Neurological rehabilitation: following illnesses or traumas that have caused neurological damage, such as a stroke

3.Neurological rehabilitation: following an injury or illness that has damaged the spinal cord, affecting motor abilities, balance, and control over bladder and bowel functions

4. Rehabilitation following a prolonged or severe illness which has significantly reduced the person’s functional ability, such as a respiratory or heart disease

There are three steps in the rehabilitation process:

Diagnosis and evaluation: a team receives a patient and performs initial diagnosis and evaluation to determine rehabilitation objectives. This includes a preliminary prognosis as to the individual’s ability to improve his functioning level. During an evaluation, the professionals recommend how the treatment should proceed, whether it should be conducted in the hospital or in the community, and what kinds of treatments are most suitable.
Rehabilitation: the rehabilitation itself includes: medical monitoring and a structured medical program for balancing risks and preventing complications; therapies as needed (occupational, physical, and speech), a social worker who follows the patient’s progress, help them obtain all relevant services, and eases them return to the community.
Evaluation and conclusion: the evaluation and conclusion of the rehabilitation process include recommendations for continued treatment as needed. The multi-professional team evaluates the rehabilitation’s outcome, formulates recommendations for continued treatment and instructs the patient and their family with regard to the patient’s new needs.

Caring for Injuries:

Even if you wear all the correct safety gear, follow the rules, stick to a sensible training program, and follow all the guidelines for injury prevention, things can still go wrong. If you do get hurt, responding properly can help you return to your sport safely and sometimes more quickly. The first thing you need to do following any kind of sports injury is to stop the activity. If you experience any warning signs of an injury, including excessive muscle fatigue, a deep tingling sensation or throbbing in one area of the body, stop what you are doing and rest. If the pain goes away, and stays away after you resume activity, you're probably fine. However, if the pain returns, you need to listen to your body and take care of the injury immediately. The best way to take care of it simply is following the RICE method: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Ibuprofen can be useful in treating a sports injury. They decrease inflammation and reduce pain. Don't take pain medication to "mask" acute pain so that you can continue to work out.

Some injuries should not be treated at home. You may need to be evaluated by a doctor. To tell if the injury is serious enough is by the different levels of pain. The worse the pain, the more serious the injury is likely to be.

A doctor may be needed to be seen if you have:

Any eye injury
Severe pain, disability or numbness
Loss of movement
A minor injury that doesn't improve or heal with three weeks of home care and rest
Infection, pus, red streaks, swollen nodes or fever
Any injury marked by bleeding, immediate swelling or bruising
An extremity that appears to be shorter than usual or in an unnatural position
Exposed bone

Equality

Colleges and universities have discretion in selecting the methods for determining the athletic interests and abilities of their students, as long as those methods are nondiscriminatory. The only requirements imposed are that institutions used methods that:

take into account the nationally increasing level of women's interests and abilities
do not disadvantage the underrepresented gender
- that gender whose participation rate in athletics is substantially below its enrollment rate
take into account team performance records of both male and female teams
respond to the expressed interests of students capable of intercollegiate competition who belong to the underrepresented gender

A college or university is not required to offer particular sports or the same sports for each sex. Also, an institution is not required to offer an equal number of sports for each sex. However, an institution must accommodate to the same degree the athletic interests and abilities of each sex in the selection of sports.

A college or university may sponsor separate teams for men and women where selection is based on competitive skill or when the activity is a contact sport.

Contact sports under the Title IX regulation include:
- boxing, wrestling, rugby, ice hockey, football, basketball and other sports in which the purpose or major activity involves bodily contact.

Equally, effective accommodation also requires a college or university that sponsors a team for only one sex to do so for members of the other sex under certain circumstances. This applies to contact and non-contact sports. For example, a separate team may be required if there are sufficient interest and ability among members of the excluded sex to sustain a team and a reasonable expectation of competition for that team. Also, where an institution sponsors a team in a particular non-contact sport for members of one sex, it must allow athletes of the other sex to try-out for the team if, historically, there have been limited athletic opportunities for members of the other sex.

In determining whether equal opportunities in athletics are available, the Title IX regulation specifies the following factors which must be considered

accommodation of athletic interests and abilities
equipment and supplies
scheduling of games and practice time
travel and per diem allowances
opportunity for coaching and academic tutoring
assignment and compensation of coaches and tutors
locker rooms and other facilities
medical and training services
housing and dining services
publicity

Works Cited:

“Education Overview.” NATA, 27 July 2017, www.nata.org/about/athletic-training/education-overview.

“Equal Opportunity In Intercollegiate Athletics: RequirementsUnder Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.” Home, US Department of Education (ED), 26 Sept. 2018, www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/interath.html?exp=1. Accessed 16 May 2019.

“Obtain Certification.” NATA, 25 Sept. 2017, www.nata.org/about/athletic-training/obtain-certification.

“Tips for Caring for Sports Injuries.” Swedish, www.swedish.org/services/orthopedic-institute/our-services/sports-medicine/tips-to-caring-for-sports-injuries.

“What Is the Rehabilitation Process?” רעות משפחה מטפלת, 1 June 2016, www.reutheshel.org.il/en/what-is-the-rehabilitation-process/.