NATA Now

Our Government Affairs team has been working hard to help these three pieces of legislation gain traction. Here are the latest updates on each bill:

H.R. 921: The Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act

• H.R. 921 clarifies medical liability rules for athletic trainers and medical professionals to ensure they are properly covered by their malpractice insurance while traveling with athletic teams in another state.
• Currently has 82 co-sponsors
• The Senate version, S. 689, has 7 co-sponsors.

The Athletic Trainers’ Educators Conference (ATEC) planning subcommittee is currently seeking dynamic individuals to present at the 2016 NATA Clinical Symposia and AT Expo in Baltimore, Maryland. The title of the presentation is Best Practices in Delivering Full-time Clinical Education. For the purpose of this presentation, the working definition of full-time clinical experience includes 30-40 hours per week without concurrent competing classroom time. We invite you to volunteer yourself and/or nominate another in one of the following categories:

Contributed by the NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainers' Committee
Written by Cindy Clivio, MEd, ATC

Worried about your budget? Worried about job security? Want a say in legislation that affects you like concussion laws or AED policies? One of the ways is to develop a relationship with your local legislators including School Board Members.
 

Contributed by the NATA Secondary School Athletic Trainers' Committee

Communication is key in all levels of athletic training, but the secondary school setting presents unique communication challenges. Here are some tips for communicating with parents, coaches and physicians.

Communicating with Parents: Making Parents Allies
By Lori Johannessen, ATC, LAT
 

In May, University of Pittsburgh athletic training student Whitney Rowley spent two weeks in Peru, where she worked with special needs children in the psychomotor room of the Clinica San Juan de Dios and volunteered with Peru for Life, a nonprofit that assists teen mothers. Her trip to the South American country has been detailed in the August/September NATA News. Learn more about this future athletic trainer below.  
 

Since becoming an athletic trainer, Angela Sneed, ATC, has found a place in motorsports, caring for pit crew members. While caring for these industrial athletes, who oftentimes work nonstop during the 38-week season, is challenging as well as rewarding – especially when someone who was previously hurt excels, said Sneed, who merged her company Advanced Athletic Training Solutions with OrthoCarolina in 2013.
 

In the latest edition on NATA News, we take a look at the event-filled 2015 NATA Convention, which took place over three days in June in St. Louis. Throughout the 80-page August/September edition, you’ll find photographs and stories revisiting this exciting annual event.
 

By John Doherty, ATC, PT

Since my first appearance in The Times sports section, I have found there typically is more to discuss than space available. Last week’s effort, to mark this column’s 30th anniversary, was no different. Promising to review sports medicine-related topics from A to Z, I only made it to the letter M.

When an athlete has trouble breathing, pinpointing the exact cause can be a challenge. While ailments such as asthma are well known, others, including Vocal Cord Dysfunction-Exercise Induced Laryngeal Obstruction (VCD-EILO), are less recognized and harder to diagnose.