Roles Of Sports Trainer (who)

[Lunarsee]

After reading the article in the Sports Trainer Digest for August 2004 by Dr. Orchard in regard to the role of Sports Trainers in Aust. I am slighly bemused by the fact that Trainers in Aust are still considered non professional not only by the Tax Dept, Work Health and Safety but by SMA as well. Trainers do not have access to voting rights on SMA issues as they are only associate members.If Trainers are to be more responsible then surely it is up to the powers to be to first recoginise the fact that a Sports Trainer is the first person on the scene and the wheel of rehabilitation starts with a correct assessment of the injury and who to refer to. Even Massage Therapists are considered to be professional under the compenticies of ANTA when a Sports Trainer refers on. I agree that a greater infrastructure is required but when is it going to happen. First and foremost should not a level of compentcy that is acceptable Australia wide by all factions of the Health industry be developed to allow a Sports Trainer to be recognised as a professinal in their own right and not simply as a First Aider or a person who runs water to players or simply straps. Presently there are a number of courses available to enhance ones' qualification but not as a Sports Trainer in the phonetic sense. Is two levels of Trainer sufficient. I would like to hear from others on this point as well.

[injuryupdate]

This is a good thread. In time I'm sure it will be recognised that there are elite levels of trainers who are particularly professional in their roles. At the moment it is such a broad job description in Australia in particular. In the USA the tertiary qualification that almost all sports trainers have makes the regulation of professional standards much greater. In Australia you can do a one weekend course and start working. The advantages of our system are that most teams have access to a sports trainer. However, we can do better.

Like many issues, I believe that the solution to this will start with a national sports injury surveillance system that is jointly run by the Federal Health and Sports departments. Although they are state based, we have national surveillance for Workers Comp injuries and Traffic injuries, and the approach to preventing sports injuries needs to exactly the same. New Zealand are way ahead in this regard.

When we have annual national injury stats, then we can start to ask and answer some of these questions, like: if you put very well qualified trainers in charge in local sporting teams in an area, will you get better outcomes in terms of lower injury rates? I think the answer would be yes, but we are a long way off asking the question. If the answer is yes, then a national body (compared to the US body NATA) can be developed to monitor the standards for sports trainers and making sure that the ideal standard is followed in most places.