This week, the National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA) hosted a back-to-school media briefing entitled, “Keeping America’s Youth Sports Athletes Safe and Ensuring the Vital Role of the Secondary School Athletic Trainer”
A.J. Duffy III, NATA President, was joined by members of the Secondary School Athletic Trainers Committee to discuss a recent survey of secondary school athletic trainers and the accompanying white paper. Duffy shared highlights and conculsions of the survey results from a total of 706 respondents. These included:
- There are 60,000 certified athletic trainers.
- 24% (14,400) work in secondary schools.
- 25% (3,600) of those are planning to leave the secondary school environment.
- 28% (16,800) are planning to leave the profession at large.
These startling statistics cite lack of value in the profession, lack of compensation and lack of support as the main reasons for finding new work. Meanwhile, 1.4 million student-athletes ages 14-18 sustain a sports-related injury each year, and they rely on the remaining athletic trainers for support. At the briefing, members of the committee discussed the best practices for maintaining morale among secondary school athletic trainers, and steps that school leadership can take to empower their athletic trainers.
“They [athletic trainers] are the primary healthcare provider for student-athletes,” said Jeffery Dugas, orthopedic surgeon at Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center.
Despite his perspective, shared by many fellow committee members, the reality is that many school districts do not have the funding for full time athletic trainers. Russ Hill’s school district is a perfect example. He said, “In our region, we do not receive any funding for these positions from state or federal funds (…) We have a cap on what we can generate locally, that is in competition with any other funds that our district needs to be successful.”
Jennifer Rheeling, athletic trainer at KIPP DC Public Charter Schools, underscored the importance of the role of the athletic trainer in secondary schools by explaining, “Our scope isn’t just taping ankles.”
Rheeling explained that athletic trainers also cover diabetes, orthopedics, anaphylaxis, heat illness, and many more ailments.
The committee hopes that athletic trainers share the available white paper with leaders at their secondary schools to help improve survey scores. The white paper includes information on job description and work hours, compensation, facility improvement and team training
“The best outcome is being able to get funding to support athletic trainers,” said Hill at the close of the meeting.
