Athletic trainers adapt in order to help athletes during the pandemic
ALAMEDA, Calif. (BVM) — Athletic trainers have had to adapt in order to protect the safety of themselves and the athletes they work with during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Athletic trainers are certified health-care professionals that provide medical aid to all individuals, not just those in sports. However, they are most well-known for their ability to take care of injured athletes and help them get back to full health so that they can return to competition. As the first point of contact for injured athletes at the high school, college and professional levels, athletic trainers are the people you see running onto the field or the court in the wake of a player suffering an injury. Trainers do surface level interventions like taping up or stabilizing injuries and teaching athletes therapeutic techniques. They work under or in collaboration with the team’s doctor, to whom they refer players that have suffered serious injuries and need x-rays or surgery.
During the pandemic, athletic trainers have had to change some elements of their jobs. For instance, their time with athletes has been limited and they have had to employ more sanitation procedures.
Ciara Morris is a brand new athletic trainer at Menlo College in Atherton, California, fresh off of getting her masters at the University of Pacific (UoP). As part of the program at UoP, she helped the school’s athletic training staff. However, due to COVID restrictions, Morris said that they were only allowed 15 minutes of contact a day with athletes, thus they looked into things that athletes could do at home to take care of themselves when they are not with the trainers.
Morris explained how the pandemic has impacted the situation at her new job.
“I have already started working with students at Menlo College,” Morris said. “We are under similar Covid safety protocols such as masks required indoors. Right now we are trying to figure out if ice baths are available for our fall athletes. If so, how do we clean it between each athlete and is it worth sanitation protocols?”
She noted that accessibility and boundaries have long been an athletic training problem and how accessibility differs between collegiate athletic divisions.
“The athletic trainers at Pacific [Division I school] were more accessible, but at Menlo [NAIA], athletes are expected to use better judgement and wait until regular business hours,” Morris said.
Cole Schneider, who is halfway through the master’s in athletic training program at Boise State University, is also looking to join this field. Schneider became inspired to follow this path while interning for the Oregon football strength and medicine staff during his undergrad days at the University of Oregon.
Despite starting the master’s program during the pandemic, last fall he was able to work with the Boise State football team under the mentorship of fellow graduate students and the team’s assistant and head athletic trainers. Even though Schneider said that he didn’t really do much other than help players with general rehab and therapeutic techniques, he highlighted the privilege of working at every home game and traveling with the team for some road games.
Through his experience, Schneider became more aware of the role that athletic trainers play and how these essential medical professionals are perceived by the public.
“I think that athletic trainers are used to getting taken for granted as people assume that they aren’t capable of performing medical activities, but now we are seeing that athletic trainers can do all these things and that we are trained to adapt and help out as much as we can,” Schneider said.
Morris and Schneider are just starting out in this profession and thus have only performed surface-level tasks. In contrast, Andrew Schultz, one of seven athletic trainers at Seattle University, highlighted the creative ways through which they have helped the Division I school’s 350 student-athletes during the COVID pandemic. He mentioned the school’s privilege of having a large athletic training team and many resources. Schultz and his fellow trainers conducted a lot of virtual check-ins with the university’s student-athletes, invested in equipment and wellness kits for athletes, and made sure to heavily sanitize tables, ice baths, and rehab equipment that athletes shared.
In addition, Schultz shared that Seattle University’s athletic training staff was responsible for the COVID-19 testing of student-athletes, which they had to do in a tight window given that the players needed to have already received their test results before their next game or travel. They worked with a nearby Seattle lab to administer and process the tests in a timely manner.
Schultz revealed what he thinks as to whether or not athletic trainers deserve more attention.
“Ninety percent of what an athletic trainer does is not seen by fans or on TV as the vast majority of work is done before and after games. I don’t think that athletic trainers go into this profession wanting attention. We do it because we like caring for student athletes and being a rock for them in this fun and difficult time in their life,” Schultz said.
This statement especially rings true after a period during which athletic trainers have had to adapt and shift procedures, illuminating the far-reaching responsibilities of trainers to support the health and safety of student athletes. Although they may not seek the limelight, their critical role in sports should be highlighted and celebrated.
