If You Think You Can

You can make today a winner
Even if you’re a beginner,
If you think you can, you can,
If you think you can, you can.

California Licensure for Athletic Trainers

In the state of Illinois, you cannot call yourself an Athletic Trainer unless you hold a state license. In order to gain a state license, you must be a Certified Athletic Trainer. Many states are this way. In fact, there are only two states in the USA that do not require some form of regulations for athletic trainers. Those two states are California and Alaska.

Deceleration in Sport

Most often when people talk about preparing for a sport, they all look at numbers. How fast can I run? How much weight can I lift? How hard do I throw the ball? Those are all valid questions when we’re talking about sports performance. They are important to note if you are being scouted to play in college or professionally. But a common thing I see left out of training is: how do we stop?

Sports Emergencies

Recent talk on sports injuries seem to revolve around concussions and traumatic brain injury. Last week I posed the question on my Facebook and on Twitter asking if we were concentrating on concussions too much? On Twitter I was met with some comments of disbelief I guess and people were quick to point out the dangers of concussions. I understand the risks and dangers of concussions. It’s something I’m very passionate about and one of the reasons I got into athletic training in the first place. BUT as a Certified Athletic Trainer, I cannot focus on concussions and forget about so many other emergencies that can occur in sports.

Empathy, Sympathy, and Patient Care

This is something I’ve thought about for a while, but recently it has come up more and more. I believe healthcare is a complicated world, but patient care must be at the center of it. Why else are we here?  Healthcare is about getting the patient well within our specific domains. There are many domains of healthcare from surgeons to non-operative medical care, to pharmaceutical to rehab, etc. We all practice within our specifics and for me that’s athletic training and rehab. I work in a physical therapy clinic and provide outreach athletic training services. But we interact with so many other healthcare professionals too. This post is based on conversations I’ve had with patients and a video that was shared in a work meeting last month.

Show&Go Workout: Time to Get After It!

It’s been said that healthcare professionals are often the worst patients. And we don’t always do what is best for us simply because you know we’re like invincible or something. We all know that we should workout but we put so many things ahead of our own workouts that it just doesn’t happen.

Emergencies on the Sports Field

Tonight everybody is talking about Kevin Ware from the Louisville Cardinals after a gruesome injury ended his season tonight on national television. If you missed it, you can easily find pictures and videos online if you so desire. He suffered a compound fracture of both his tibia and fibula which required surgery to repair. But it is important to highlight the care he received immediately following the injury and recognize the importance of the Sports Medicine Team and the Emergency Action Plan that was put into action.