Defining your worth and value as a secondary school athletic trainer
The Secondary School Value Model (pdf) (SSVM) is a resource developed by the Secondary School Athletic Trainers’ Committee (SSATC) and the Committee on Revenue (COR) to help educate athletic trainers and consumers of athletic training services, especially within the secondary school setting, of the worth and value of an athletic trainer. Understanding and applying these concepts is critical for successful communication with decision makers, schools and the local community.
For the Secondary School Athletic Trainer
It is imperative that the secondary school athletic trainer understands the worth of the services they provide and how to set values to those services. With the SSVM, we hope the secondary school athletic trainer will be able to quantify and articulate their value to the secondary school community. The SSVM will not only assist the athletic trainer in defining their value and worth, but, in conjunction with the Position Proposal Guide (PPG) and the Position Improvement Guide (PIG), can be used to create, maintain or improve an athletic training position in your local secondary school.
Tell your fellow athletic trainer about this important resource: Secondary School Value Model for the Athletic Trainer (pdf).
For the Athletic Training Advocate
Student athlete safety is a top priority with secondary school athletics. The secondary school athletic trainer provides a unique and qualified skill set to help meet the need of student athlete care and safety.Relying on coaches, administrators, or volunteers to provide these types of services puts the athlete, school and its employees at risk.
Additionally, in a time of dwindling academic budgets, it is imperative that decision makers know the value of each position on their staff, and the athletic training position is no different. The SSVM will allow decision makers to quantify and articulate the value of the secondary school athletic trainer.
We hope the secondary school administrator, athletic director, parent, or school board member will able to use the information found in the SSVM to support efforts to hire an athletic trainer or continue or to improve an already existing athletic training position.
Educate your school administrator on the value and worth of your services: Secondary School Value Model for Secondary School Administrators (pdf).
How to Use the Secondary School Value Model
The following examples of common challenges faced by SSATs are given to illustrate how this value model can be used to quantify, justify and illustrate the value of the AT’s services. The SSVM is intended to compliment, and makes reference to the Position Improvement Guide (PIG) and Best Practices in Secondary School Athletic Training position statement. This is just a small sample of possible uses and should be considered as a starting point; further details and suggestions are included in the value model.
Problem/Challenge |
Value Model Strategy |
Examples |
| Justifying cost of program/salary (see pg. 2,4,7,13) |
- Use list of the services Secondary School Athletic Trainers (SSAT) provide, and assign dollar value based on industry standards |
- Therapeutic exercise: refer to CPT code price - Event preparation, coverage and care: refer to state department of labor or local hourly rate standard. |
| Illustrate how AT mitigates liability risk to school (pg. 4,6,7,10,12) |
-Identify how often Emergency Action Plan has been utilized -Quantify Exertional Heat Illness prevention -Adherence to concussion management policies -Intervention on injury trends, unsafe facilities or activities |
- Track number of EMS calls - List number of practice/game days in high temps - Track number of concussions, avg. days to RTP, MD appts & notes, etc - Related new injury tracking statistics |
| Quantify the number of hours beyond patient care/need to hire additional AT (pg. 5,6,8,13) |
- Use Care Coordinator and Medical Referral list of services provided by SSAT - Use list of administrative duties |
- Track number of hours: educating athletes, calling parents, advising coaches, physician communication, coordination with other health care providers, etc - List number of referrals per year |
| Prove effectiveness of AT interventions (pg. 4,10,14-16) | - Implement outcome measures into daily practice - Include impact on academic success |
- Improvement of symptoms over time with Graded Concussion Symptom Checklist - Daily pain scales - Functional movement pre/post tests - Absenteeism records - Pre-post-concussion classroom performance |
| Show the volume of contact & care beyond athletics (pg. 7-9,14) |
- Use list of populations served - Include all school/community education presentations throughout calendar year - Compile all forms of personally authored publications related to role as AT |
- Track number of visiting athletes evaluated/treated - Track number and nature of ‘drop-in’ consults for faculty/staff, parents, PE students, etc - Retain flyers, agendas, handouts, etc used for presentations - Create a file of articles, published works, quotes, blogs, posts, etc |