The National Athletic Trainers' Association on Tuesday hosted its annual Media and Membership Briefing. A panel addressed the critical role of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) and the group’s newly published, “Position Statement: Emergency Action Plan Development and Implementation in Sport.”
The new documentation is the first updated Position Statement on the topic since 2002. A full copy of the Position Statement can be found in the Journal of Athletic Training.
In his opening words for the meeting, A.J. Duffy, NATA president, discussed key insights from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury, citing recent incidents including the collapse of Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills football team.
“This updated EAP statement is critical to keeping athletes safe, particularly at the secondary school level where only 37% of high schools have access to a full-time athletic trainer. We hope these very critical guidelines are reviewed and implemented to help reduce risk of injury and save lives.” Duffy said.
Duffy was joined on screen by several other athletic trainers and medical professionals, some of whom contributed to the newest EAP documentation update.
“This document was 22 years in the making,” said Samantha E. Scarneo-Miller, program director, assistant professor and chair of the position statement writing group. She highlighted several exciting points about the new documentation, including the objective assignment of medical professionals to the writing team. Scarneo-Miller also shared excitement over continuously improving emergency medical research.
Highlights of new content in the published Position Statement include:
- Innovative development procedures
- Venue and sport-specific EAPs
- Comprehensive documentation
- Pre-event medical meetings
An EAP is rooted in a team’s athletic trainers. “Athletic Trainers are our strongest partners in terms of saving lives, emergency preparedness, and what we do on the field,” said Seattle Seahawks team physician, Jonathan Drezner, MD.
He went on to remind members that there might not always be an athletic trainer or medical personnel available, so it is crucial that everyone reviews an EAP and is responsible for care. One of his key tools is an AED. Drezner recommends keeping an AED within 3 minutes of the field of play, whether it be recreational, competitive or professional play.
“My team did an amazing job of performing CPR from a player’s feet, because we couldn’t access his side,” said Rick Burkholder, vice president of sports medicine and performance for Kansas City Chiefs, referring to a recent cardiac arrest incident with Kansas City Chief’s BJ Thompson, defensive end. Burkholder and his team had recently practiced their EAP training, so they were well prepared. However, the exact situation with Thompson had never happened before. It taught them the importance of self-scouting.
“The EAP is a fluid document,” said Burkholder. He explained that his team will be making adjustments and changes to their EAP based on the recent incident. They knew where all the equipment was on the field, but responding to a cardiac incident in a meeting room was a new frontier.
On the high school level, Shelly Jones is most excited about coaching education, expansion of the pre-event medical meeting for all sports and updated documentation. Jones is the head athletic trainer at Aloha High School in Beaverton, Oregon.
“You can’t have an EAP, give it to a bunch of people, but never practice,” said Jones. At her school, they use a teamwork system to get the student’s involved in the EAP as well, assigning students various roles if an emergency takes place and she isn’t there.
Darryl Conway, executive senior associate athletic director at the University of Michigan, was also on the writing panel. “Our EAP lives on our central electronic network. Everyone across athletics, staff or student, has access to the EAP,” said Conway, “Everybody on our health team, including clinicians and paramedics.”
According to Conway, that EAP is posted around the facility as well. It is affixed to the AED packages, so if you are grabbing that device then you are also grabbing the EAP. The centralized all-call signal is another key component of the EAP for Conway, because it cuts down on time to interpret hand signals or school-specific signals. He recommends using it for all schools in a district or conference.
One thing that all these professionals agreed on, is that it is not enough to share the EAP Documentation and expect everyone to review it on their own time. Rehearse the EAP as a team, playing out different scenarios and then have a group discussion about it.
Along with the new Position Statement on EAPs, NATA also has resources for creating an EAP, risk management resources and examples for rehearsing an EAP in your facility. More information can be found on their website.
