Transcription:
The Importance of Athletic Trainers

Welcome to UK HealthCast, the podcast from UK healthcare.

Scott Webb: I'm Scott Webb, and for those of us who watch or play sports regularly, we know that athletic trainers play an important role in preventing and treating injuries. And joining me today to further explain the role and responsibilities of athletic trainers, especially at schools, is Laurie Blunk. She's an athletic trainer at Tates Creek High. And she's with University of Kentucky Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine. So, Laurie, thanks so much for your time today. We were just kind of talking off the air a bit. I mentioned that my son played baseball. My daughter's playing basketball now.

I played sports a hundred years ago, so I'm very familiar with athletic trainers, but I know from my time to now, lots has changed both in terms of, training and certifications and technology and all that. So this should be a fun conversation and as we get rolling here, just a baseline question. What do athletic trainers do for teams?

Laurie Blunk: So athletic trainers are nationally certified and in many states, even licensed healthcare providers. We specialize in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of athletic related injuries and illnesses. And we're also there to provide immediate care for individuals and emergencies, kind of similar to what we've seen recently in the media. We work in many different settings. Most people know us as working with traditional sports settings. Pro sports, colleges, high schools, all the way down to middle schools even now.

But there's also athletic trainers that work with individuals in other settings where people are active in their day-to-day. individuals that work in the industrial settings. So laborers, working in factories, trying to prevent injuries. , There when they're doing repetitive tasks all day. We work with the military as well, trying to keep them in top condition. And there's also even athletic trainers that work with performers in the performing arts.

Scott Webb: Yeah. That's awesome. And obviously you're probably referencing DeMar Hamlin and what happened in the Bill's Bengals game, and I'm sure you as an athletic trainer, you were like, oh my gosh, this would've been a big deal. And good thing that there were. Qualified folks on the field to help him immediately. And I'm sure a lot of what you do is deal with acute injuries, but you also mentioned prevention in there, and I think that's important to note that lots can be done by trainers, by physical therapists, to help athletes, especially young athletes, prevent injuries. I'm just wondering if you could take us through that a little bit? The sort of science and technology and how you say, okay, what sport do you play and what repetitive movements are you doing, and here's how we think we can keep you on the fields and on the courts for longer periods of time?

Laurie Blunk: A lot of times we'll work with our teams and come up with different preventative programs. For example, we've worked a lot with girls soccer specifically coming up with ACL preventative programs for them to do. ACL injuries are unfortunately extremely common in that sport. So if there's things that we can work on to kind of mitigate the risk of them having that injury, you know, that's always helpful to try to do pre-season, get them kind of trained on landing mechanic.

And things of that nature. A lot of times athletes are kind of hesitant to come to us for most things, but one thing that we want them to realize is if we can work with them on things that they're feeling before it becomes an issue, a lot of times we can keep them, on the field, on the core, which is where we want them to be. We don't like to hold people out, so we wanna do as much as we can to try to keep them healthy and make sure they're out there doing what they love.

Scott Webb: Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, I know my daughter's 15, so she's a basketball player. So I worry about a c l injuries and I've actually taken her to a physical therapist to try to do, as you're saying, to try to avoid those injuries, And I think you touched on something there about how especially young athletes are afraid to come to the trainer because they don't want to be told they can't play. You know? And maybe you can just encourage, again, especially young athletes to speak up because your role isn't to stop them from playing. It's to keep them playing and prevent injuries. Right?

Laurie Blunk: Correct. And a lot of times , they'll have that mindset where they don't wanna be held out, so they wait a longer time to come in and see us. And at that point it tends to become something that then we do have to kind of rest them. We see this a lot in our distance runners, , they don't like to stop running. So they may come in and Something that's been going on two weeks, two months, and they just didn't wanna say anything. Well, now we've exhausted more options as far as being able to cross train and do other things because it's gone from bad to worst case scenario.

That's a lot of stress on the body, so we wanna make sure, they don't have a stress fracture or anything like that. If it's something that they've been running through for weeks on end, we may not have another choice but to rest them. But so if we can figure out and know what's going on sooner when it happens, there's a lot of things we can do to kind of get them over the hump and keep them out there doing what they want to be doing.

Scott Webb: Yeah, you're so right. And runners will run through anything. The worst weather possible injuries, you name it. Runners are a bit obsessive that way, but, that's awesome. So let's then talk about the training and certifications that you need before you can become an athletic trainer for a specific team.

Laurie Blunk: Yeah, so athletic training has recently transitioned as far as the educational requirements go. When I went through the minimum was a bachelor's degree that you had to have, but most athletic trainers like myself went on and got our masters it has since changed and there's no longer bachelor's really degrees for them. It's now more so an entry level master's degree. So you'll go through about a five year program and then you'll sit for your national exam. During the course of your education, you go through,, an extensive number of hours shadowing with an athletic trainer, getting to do hands on skills, learning things actually firsthand that you're not gonna be able to really get in the classroom.

So being able to actually see these things and take care of athletes in the real world with real reactions to these things, and doing it for so long, , athletic trainers are gonna come out with just a very extensive, background in being able to handle any situation kind of that comes up to them. So again, most athletic trainers have their master's degree, they have to be nationally certified to practice in, I think all but maybe one state. And many states even require you to be licensed in that state.

Scott Webb: And This has been really educational today. And as we wrap up, Laurie, We referenced DeMar Hamlin, and let's hope that athletes don't face cardiac arrest during sports events. Let's hope that most trainers never have to deal with something like that. , it was pretty horrific as it played out for all of us, and thankfully he's okay. But why are athletic trainers so important at live sporting events?

Laurie Blunk: So just like you referenced the DeMar Hamlin case, I know I can speak for most athletic. When we saw that, a lot of us had the same feeling. That is our worst case scenario. That's a situation that you never wanna be a part of. I've been involved in situations like that and I'm gonna tell you right now, it sticks with you. What we like to see are things unfold the way it did for him. So where care was provided within, I think I read 10 seconds. That's the ideal situation. That's what's gonna give a person the best chance for survival. So this is why having an athletic trainer is so important..

If a situation like that were to happen at a high school with no athletic trainer there at all. Response time may have been much, much slower and the outcome may not have been as favorable. So this is why we encourage schools to have athletic trainers. We're very lucky in this area that so many of our schools do have athletic trainers. And like I said, even our middle schools typically have athletic trainers there, at least for game coverage. But there's just a lot more that can be done to get athletic trainers. In schools, but also just in involved in recreational sports as well. Club soccer, club volleyball. A lot of times there's no athletic trainer there for those athletes, and these things can happen just as easily in those situations.

Scott Webb: Yeah, I think you're so right and I'm sure that these types of things do stay with you and you know, that's maybe a worst case scenario. Can happen even to younger athletes. Athletic trainers are just so important and great to learn today about the training and certifications and licensing. Really awesome Laurie. So thanks so much. You stay well.

Laurie Blunk: Thanks.

Scott Webb: And for more information, visit the UK healthcare website or call UK Healthcare Orthopedic Surgery in Sports Medicine at 859-218-3131.

Scott Webb (Host): And that wraps up another episode of UK HealthCast from UK Healthcare. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other UK healthcare podcasts. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well.