Celebrating Champions in Health Care: National Athletic Training Month
National Athletic Training Month is held every March to spread awareness about the important work of athletic trainers (AT’s). The care these experts provide—to middle, high school, collegiate, professional athletes, or the industrial or tactical athlete—can be life-altering. This year’s theme, “Celebrating Champions in Health Care, " reflects that kind of care.”
Athletic trainers are ready to address almost anything their patients might need. Their education includes emergency care, evaluating and treating orthopedic injuries, injury prevention, as well as concussion care, nutrition and hydration. Typically working in team environments (sports teams, companies, municipal organizations, etc.), AT’s are frontline healthcare providers who develop strong relationships with the patients they treat.
As March is National Athletic Training Month, we wanted to hear directly from our staff and asked the following question:
What skills do athletic trainers bring to patients in the traditional realm of sports medicine or the rapidly developing fields of industrial and tactical medicine?
Joe Hanel, LAT, ATC
“I provide onsite services, basically in the form of OSHA first aid and physical therapy. Employees see me right at work when they have an issue without having lost time or having to go to offsite appointments. Whether you call it rapid response or early intervention, the bottom line is assessing and treating employees quickly keeps them healthy and on the job.”
Heidi Bohl, LAT, ATC
“We look at the employees at our companies as industrial athletes and bring the latest tools to the workplace that allow them to do their jobs successfully. We use functional job analysis and job description measurements to develop an ergonomic recommendations report to protect workers and empower companies to make data-informed modifications to the job tasks or workstation.”
Traci Tauferner, LAT, ATC, CSCS, PES, MCTP
“I work mostly in the tactical setting. A key feature of our onsite work with police and fire departments is testing: fit-for-duty, return to duty, and recruit testing. These evaluations play a crucial role in departmental readiness, where police officers and firefighters are set up for success and capable of performing under extreme conditions.”
Marcus Werner, PT, DPT, OCS
“With expertise in injury evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation, as well as injury prevention, ergonomics, and nutrition, athletic trainers provide the essential support needed to keep their patients going strong. But it’s not just about the science, it’s about the human connection. Athletic trainers are there offering words of encouragement, providing a shoulder to lean on, instilling the confidence needed to persevere. They become trusted allies in the patient’s journey.”
Lynsey Hansen, LAT, ATC
“AT’s have the unique opportunity to get to know their patients before they get injured in most cases, which can help improve the patient's outcome, and the AT also gets to watch them successfully return to their career, hobby they love, etc. Having that sort of relationship can help keep the small things small, whether it’s suggesting better hydration or making ergonomic adjustments to their workspace.”
Sean Gough, LAT, ATC
“Athletic trainers excel in being the go-to, that trusted face due to the long term relationships we build with patients—especially in the athletic setting but also now in the industrial and tactical space. Not only do we get to see our patients at a time where they are vulnerable, hurt, or uncertain about their future, but we also get to see them at their best.”
Marc Viergutz, MS, LAT, ATC, GTS, PES
“ATs offer a truly sport-specific view which is unique in the world of medicine. From the way we are educated to the way we approach things. It’s always from a view with the athlete’s sport in mind. AT’s work daily with that sport and can give a more detailed customized treatment plan.”
Megan Werner, LAT, ATC, ITAT, NASM-CES
“I feel athletic trainers offer a huge value to our patients because of our dynamic skill set. With our roots in athletics, we naturally learn to be flexible and are quick to adjust based on the needs of our patients and clients. We are always looking for ways to help our patients recover from injury or continue to improve their performance, no matter if their “playing field” is an actual field or court for an athlete, a manufacturing facility for an industrial worker, or a burning building for a firefighter.”
Are you seeking an athletic trainer to provide care at your local school or cover your upcoming event? We are proud of our history with area school districts and universities and can provide the athletic training services you need. Contact Megan Werner, Sports Medicine Coordinator, at [email protected].
If your organization seeks workplace solutions, from injury prevention programs with enhanced care access to testing services that ensure job readiness, connect with us at industrialmed@advancedptsm or [email protected].