NATA Now

During the COVID-19 pandemic, athletic trainers have stepped up to help their local health care systems in multiple ways, including screening, telemedicine and infrastructure. NATA will share what athletic trainers everywhere are doing to care for their patients, communities and themselves during this time.

Editor's note: In honor of Women’s History Month this March, NATA would like to celebrate all women athletic trainers making a difference in the profession and their patients’ lives through a monthlong blog series. Julie Frymyer, DPT, MS, ATC, Tiffany Morton, MS, LAT, ATC, and Laura A. McCabe, LAT, ATC, were also featured on the NATA Now blog prior to the Super Bowl.

For the first time in Super Bowl history, three female athletic trainers were on the sidelines providing health care to players.

Editor's note: In honor of National Athletic Training Month, NATA is conducting a blog series throughout March that showcases how ATs use the five domains of athletic training to improve the health and well-being and their patients. This blog post highlights domain five, Health Care Administration and Professional Responsibility, and how members can embody this year’s NATM theme, “ATs Impact Health Care Through Action.” 

Finding even just a little bit of normalcy during these unpredictable times is the one thing many athletic trainers are striving for, and technology is helping make that happen. In hospitals, clinics, private practices and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, athletic trainers are utilizing telehealth technology to stay connected to patients and keep recovery and rehabilitation on track during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NATA hosted Prepare to Play February 29 in partnership with the University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City Chiefs and area Girl Scouts. This community service event is designed to educate area youth and their parents on important health and safety topics, promote general wellness and highlight the valuable role that ATs play in work, life and sport.

In order to help during these unprecedented times, and appreciating that many students need resources to prepare for the upcoming BOC exam, NATA, in conjunction with our partners at the ACES Preparatory Workshops, is offering our mock exams for free (a $58 value) for NATA student members until May 1. To access the exam, program directors can submit their students’ names and NATA member numbers to ki@nata.org.

Editor's note: In honor of Women’s History Month this March, NATA would like to celebrate all women athletic trainers making a difference in the profession and their patients’ lives through a monthlong blog series.

When Tina Carrillo, MS, ATC, was hired by Friendship Collegiate Academy in 2011, she was not only the first athletic trainer caring for student athletes within the 16 Friendship Public Charter Schools, but the first athletic trainer ever hired within the D.C. public charter school system.

Editor's note: In honor of National Athletic Training Month, NATA is conducting a twice-weekly blog series throughout March that showcases how ATs use the five domains of athletic training to improve the health and well-being of their patients. This blog post highlights domain four, Therapeutic Intervention, and how members are embodying this year’s NATM theme, “ATs Impact Health Care Through Action.”

It’s an unprecedented time during the COVID-19 pandemic with states around the country shutting down in hopes of stopping the spread of the virus. People are advised throughout the U.S. to stay home, with many health care professionals stating, “I stay at work for you; you stay at home for us.”

Athletic trainers are eager to help in whatever capacity they can. Some ATs are on the frontline at testing locations, while others are working on the structure of how their cities can best handle the situation.

“Our daily routines are affected by the fluidly changing situation surrounding the coronavirus,” said David Middlemas, EdD, ATC, CCISM, chair of NATA ATs Care Commission in his NATA Now blog post “ATs Care Support During COVID-19.” “These changes directly impact both the athletic trainer’s personal and professional lives, often with minimal or no input into the planning. As a result, we are thrust into a period of uncertainty that has the potential to negatively impact one’s daily life.”