Is College Athletics a Business?

Although this post is not in regard to a recent news article that has been posted, it is in reference to a documentary that was on Epix.  This documentary, Schooled the price of college sports, was a very interesting and eye opening video to watch.

This film chronicled the history of college athletics (more so football and basketball) as well as the creation of the NCAA.  For me, as I watched the video I was amazed to grasp the full understanding of how money seemingly is at the helm of decisions that have been made and rules and regulations that have been created and sanctioned by a governing agency - who through its' own history - took this role on themselves.

True to media form, this film does portray many times one side of the story - however, to the credit of the producers, it does appear they wanted to have current leaders within the NCAA to speak on behalf of the organization and they refused.  I have always known that sport and competition is a very large part of the American culture, I just didn't realize the extent to which, from the film's perspective, the athlete's are profited off of.  If you have a chance to view - I highly encourage and you can draw your own perspectives.

Parents Beware!

Ok - so this may be a bit late in posting as the cinnamon challenge craze seems to have come and gone, however, the reason for posting is to again help us to understand our role in educating our student-athlete patient base with regard to healthy behaviors, and how the choices we make as individuals, ultimately carry consequences.

This article identifies several reasons for youth making decisions that are not the healthiest.  With the urge to want to 'fit in' with others, pressure may be placed upon a student to ultimately do something that they either didn't want to, or felt they needed to in order to be a part of a group.  Research has also suggested the area of the brain that is responsible for decision making and risk taking is not fully developed until we reach into our 20's.  Therefore, to only speak to a student-athlete about 'right vs wrong' decisions may not be the most appropriate way to assist.

It is my belief that just as we teach our children how to navigate through cognitive skills (ie. how to solve a math problem, how to answer an essay), we also need to teach them skills which may aid them in being a healthy individual --> ie. refusal skills, conflict resolution skills, and building self-confidence to name a few.  One way to do so is to offer a comprehensive health education program within the school district taught by a qualified individual.  What we do find, however, is that schools, due to a variety of reasons (budget, philosophy, accreditation needs) may not offer a comprehensive health program.  Just as it is vital that schools who offer athletics have a qualified, licensed individual take care of the athletes' health needs, we also need to ensure there are qualified individuals to teach health. 

Additionally, as athletic trainers, we must always keep in mind we have the ability to develop an atmosphere of trust.  As such, we are placed in a precarious situation, as we can either help or hinder situations based upon what we say or by expressing our values on a situation.  We need to be sure we bear in mind that our patients may hear what we say and make a decision based upon what we have said.  Let's be sure we send out positive, thoughtful and caring messages.

Governement Shutdown - A Silent Minority at Grave Loss

As of today we are in day three of the government shutting down and although many are affected, there are some that are affected that we don't even know about.  This article highlights those who are involved in clinical trials that have funding through the government.  In this particular case, the individuals who are mentioned in this article are cancer patients.

Many of the patients have already had a difficult journey with their treatments, and as the article identifies, many were looking to the clinical trials as their last hope.  With the government in shut down mode, there will be no treatments, no interventions, nothing for them.

It is rather frustrating, as I am sure many of us are, to have this outcome for our country occur.  Another journalist, Bob Greene, reports that as Americans we should get our money back.  He writes in the article that we have no choice but to pay income tax for the very manner in having our government operate and work for us.  When it refuses to operate, we should get our money back with interest.  He uses some humor in his writing and makes an analogy of the purchase of an airline ticket.  If the airline leaves you stranded in a city (not your final destination), the individual then has a right to ask for money to be returned as services that were paid for were not rendered.

My point with this article is for us to identify there are so many individuals who are being affected by the government shut down - many, of whom, are probably not highly visible to us.  Let's try to be cognizant that many individuals, families, and communities are being negatively impacted by this shutdown.

Another Student Athlete Collapses and Dies

This article that appeared in the NY Daily News reported that 18 year old Milo Meeks collapsed while playing basketball in his Florida High School.  As this is such a new story, we do not yet know any health history this young man may have had which may have predisposed him to suffering from a heart condition.

The article does not mention the intervention of a health care provider in the form of an athletic trainer or the intervention of an AED.  As this seems to be an out of season athlete, perhaps if the school did employ an athletic trainer, maybe they had responsibilities to the student athletes who were in season.  In any case, this story once again highlights the need for AEDs to be accessible and an educated public as to its' appropriate use.  Ultimately, I would really like to state this story perhaps identifies the need for enough qualified health care providers to be employed in any community, school or institution in which student-athletes are participating.  While I realize schools will always have the 'fall back' of stating there is not enough money in their budget - I am wondering how many more of these articles we will read in the future before change is made.  Mind you, employing a qualified health care provider does not guarantee this will never occur again, or that the outcome will always be different.  But, it does assist in knowing the student-athletes are getting the best health care possible.  This is something I am sure most parents and athletes themselves would feel comfortable knowing.

How Will Planet Fitness Handle This?

After I read this the first time I couldn't believe what I had just read and had to go back through and re-read.  I know that newspaper reports don't necessarily always get the news 'correct', but this one was rather shocking.  In the article, we learn that a 22 year old female had come to complete her morning work-out at Planet Fitness.

Once she was finished, she went to the locker-room, then went to the rest-room.  One of the other female club members heard her fall to the floor in the bathroom and was able to see her body laying on the floor under the stall.  The club member ran to the front desk to report another club member was in trouble and needed assistance.  The response that was given by the male front desk attendant was rather alarming.  He basically let the club member know he was the only club worker on site and couldn't leave the front desk but had to wait for another worker to arrive.

The article moves on to discuss that the attendant did not call 911 until coaxed by a second member (why the members didn't call themselves isn't made clear).  The female worker finally reports to work and finds the young lady with a 'weak' pulse.  An ambulance is called, but unfortunately,  she dies.  We also find that that Planet Fitness was to have an AED on site as well as someone credentialed to use it - again, these standards were not met by Planet Fitness. I hope the paper will follow the case so that we can find the legal outcome.  In any case, my hope would be that common sense would have prevailed and that the attendant would have left the front desk to check on the club member or at the least, called 911.  We cannot be sure if the outcome would have been different if this occurred, but we will never know as this did not take place.

Technology Assists 3 Year Old to Hear

This story and video demonstrates technology at its' best.  Grayson Clamp was born without nerves to allow him to hear.  Technology and physicians step in and Grayson had an implant placed directly into his brain stem, which now allows him to hear.

The article also has a 'priceless' video in which he is able to hear his dad's voice for the first time.  What I appreciated when seeing the video was that the dad was also using sign language - which meant he took the time to learn another language so that he could communicate with his son.  Take the time to have a look - I hope you enjoy it as I did.

Burned Out Nurses = More Patient Infections?

This article suggests a link between Burned out nurses linked to more infections in patients. The authors describe how researchers have found a correlation to burnout with nurses and the number of infections seen in the patients they care for.

Specifically, the research has suggested that when a nurses' workload increases, so too, does the number of infections that are seen within the patients who are under their care.  This could be due to not practicing good sanitary methods of care between patients; it could be due to fatigue (both physical and mental); it could be due to burn-out.

This article got my attention as I am curious to see if there is any similar relationship within the profession of athletic training.  We know the hours an AT will place in the worksite will almost always be more than a traditional 40 hour week.  Most ATs during preseason will accrue 40 hours working M-W alone!  Studies within the profession of AT have identified burn-out in the profession, but have not linked medical mistakes to the burn-out or job related fatigue.  I can only assume that many ATs have made mistakes when they are consistently putting in 12-14 hour days.  The mistakes may not be that which will be a matter of life and death, but I am curious if the decisions, like the nurses identified in this article, increase our patients health outcomes negatively.

Of course, much more to be looked at regarding this subject and our profession, but thought there may be some connection with our profession and this article.

Smokers Beware!

If there haven't been enough studies published to discuss the negative effects of smoking to help sway a smoker into quitting, perhaps this article will.

The authors identify the 'cost' of smoking a respective employer will have to incur should they have an employee who chooses to smoke.  This will range from actual 'hard money' in the form of  covering medical bills to 'soft money' -- ie. days lost at work, lower productivity.

With this article and the many studies which have preceded it, we have observed many changes with smoking 'rules' including smoke-free  restaurants, clubs and bars.  It seems to be more difficult today than has been in the past to be a smoker with regard to when and where one can smoke.  If we look back to advertisements, movies and even news casts from the 1960's - 1970's we see that smoking seemed to be the 'cool' thing to do.  Today, the culture of smoking is changing to that of a negative rather than a positive as it had been.

The future will tell us how prospective employers will look on hiring an individual who is a smoker.  Perhaps it will not make a difference, but perhaps to some employers this may have them think twice before hiring the individual.  My hope would be that we can attempt to have individuals lead a healthier life by not smoking - and certainly, for those individuals who are employed in a health care industry, I think we need to actually demonstrate healthy behaviors and not just speak about them.

Abuse in Athletics

Over the past few months much has been written about regarding abuse from coaches in athletics - specifically college athletics.  Sadly, the practice of both physical and psychological abuse seems to becoming highlighted more so now - which means that perhaps it has been there all along but may not have been reported.  This article regarding Rutgers University discusses the University's newest selection of an individual who will lead their athletic department - Julie Hermann.  Ms. Hermann replaces Tim Pernetti.  Mr. Pernetti had hired men's baksetball coach, Mike Rice.  Mr. Rice had been videotaped during his basketball practices in which his behavior demonstrated that he physically, verbally and psychologically abused his players.  One of his coaches was very uncomfortable with this and followed up with reporting to his supervisor, Tim Pernetti.   Instead of being dismissed from his job, Mr. Pernetti along with the support of the President of the University, kept the Mr. Rice in the head coach position.  After much negative (rightly so) media attention, Mr. Rice was fired and the Athletic Director resigned.  The AD has been subsequently replaced  by Julie Hermann.

The allegations that have been suggested regarding Ms. Hermann's practices when she was a coach, if true, are yet another example of alarming behavior.  When I sit and ponder to think about what individuals would be at practice and games on a consistent basis, the individual(s) that come to my mind are athletic trainers.  We have an understanding of how a coach runs practice; what they do to motivate their players; how they support their players and how they discipline their athletes.  It is a difficult situation when our values do not connect with those of the coaching staff - what are we left to do when we see a co-worker acting in ways that are disrespectful, and in some cases breaking rules?  What do we do?  This is an ethical question that each of us may need to face in our professional lives.  For some athletic trainers, the answer is clear - speak with the coach, go to our supervisor, make  our voice heard - make something happen.  For others, this may not be so easy.  Fear may be a reason - fear of retaliation; fear of job security; fear of being viewed by others as a 'tattle tail'.

There has been legislation passed in the 1980s that is to protect individuals who want to step forward and report misconduct without fear of retaliation (Whistleblower Protection Act).  However, individuals may still not want to come forward.  While each situation is different, my suggestion is that if you find yourself in this type of challenging situation to do what the right thing is - it may not be the easy thing to do, but select the path where you will be able to look at yourself in the future with no regrets.  Know that all of us will not take the same path - decide what is the best course for you.

Benefits of Meditation to Our Youngest

There has been much written regarding meditation and relaxation techniques for adult populations, but this article posted on ABC News on-line also demonstrates the benefits of 'mindfulness' to our youngest. 

With so many different responsibilities our youth have, it only seems to make sense to have 'quiet' time in which they can sit, relax and take a few moments to quiet their minds.  The authors discuss the importance for all of us to take some quiet moments in our very busy lives in order to help rejuvenate ourselves.  Two studies in this article discuss the positive outcomes of better focus, better health, better attention and better test scores for those children who utilize meditation techniques.  It would be interesting to follow through and study both the short term and long term effects this may have on a cohort.  Perhaps, if the outcomes were similar to the studies identified in the article our school systems might consider implementing!

The World Needs Help!

Just recently a referee who was officiating a league soccer game was punched, and subsequently died from his injuries.  The article is here .  For me the story reminds me how precious life is and how quickly it may change - for any one of us.  How very sad it has become that the way to handle frustration is to hurt another.