Overall Health of the High School Athlete - Research Paper Example

The issue of student athlete health has been debatable for quite a long time. As many incidences of health problems of student athletes continue to be on the increase, a bone of contention has been whose responsibility it is to oversee the heath of these athletes. This paper will articulate of the responsibilities of several stakeholders as far as health of these athletes is concerned. Introduction It is apparent that athletics is an important issue of concern in high schools. Besides being healthy for high school students, athletics plays a critical role in enhancing collaboration, decision making, and overall wellbeing of students. In the contemporary world, athletics has become a form of the profession for many students. However, various issues have been of major concern in relation to the overall health of athlete students. This is true because in some instances, student athletes have had incidences of injuries and other health concerns (Brunner, 2008). In this regard, a clear articulation of whose responsibility is for the overall health of the high school athlete is of primary importance. Although there are no laws compelling schools to have health care programs for the student athlete, it is necessary to note that both parents and schools need to come up with mechanisms of ensuring the health of student athlete is taken care of. Such initiatives may involve designing and development of healthcare program that would take care of student athlete (Brunner, 2008). This program should look after the health, safety, and welfare of the students. An example of such a program could be sports medicine program. This program should service student athlete who participate in the athletic activities. The program should not only look at the physical welfare of the students, but also take care of the mental wellbeing of the students (Harrelson, Gardner & Winterstein, 2009). It is believed that millions of students in the United States participate in interscholastic athletic competition and during these occasions, thousands of athletes suffer injuries. Since athletic health care is commonplace in professional and collegiate athletics, most high school students remain locked out from these services. In this regard, high schools need to be guided by moral and financial obligations to come up with health services that would take care of student athletes (Floyd & Allen, 2009). In these programs, school administrators need to develop a well programmed heath service that would incorporate medical practitioners and certified athletic trainers. What training should encompass Schools should ensure that they hire highly educated and skilled healthcare practitioners specialized in athletic health care. This will ensure that there is cooperation between the health professionals and athletic trainers. Athletic trainers are required to maintain their skills by a way of enhancing their skills through continued education (Eaves, 2010). They should also be people of integrity and are required by Association Board of Certification and the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to take extensive written and oral examinations testing their skills (Brunner, 2008). Additionally, athletic trainers should be competent in risk management and injury prevention. This is an indispensable area of concern by an athletic trainer. They should be in a position to have knowledge on how to mitigate risks and above all, have knowledge on how to prevent injuries. They should also be able to have the capacity to understand ways of evaluate issues that may bring about complications in the athlete health (Eaves, 2010). Therapeutic modalities also fall under some of the most significant concepts of athletic trainer. In addition, general medical and disabilities should be also among the most essentials of an athletic trainer. They should be in a position to determine appropriate athletes to participate in which kind of an athletic and at what time to do so (Floyd & Allen, 2009). For example, students with some health conditions like a heart attack cannot be allowed to participate in athletics that would jeopardize their health. Similarly, students with disabilities cannot fit to all categories of athletics. Athletic trainers need to have knowledge of appropriate athletics such students should take part in (Brunner, 2008). Apart from having qualified health practitioners and athletic trainers, it is argued that cooperation between schools, parents, and the government can enhance health care of student athlete (Floyd & Allen, 2009). For example, a school can design a program that takes care of athlete students and propose to the government about the funding of such a program. Parents, on the other hand, can also play a part by ensuring that they take private insurance policies, which takes care of their families including their children. This way, in case of any injuries during athletic participation, either private insurance policy or the school health program can take of their medical bills (Brunner, 2008). Nevertheless, although these programs may be put in place, it is necessary for school administration to have effective mechanisms of primary care of their students. For example, before students can participate in any given athletic, all students should be have a current physical and mental examination file in sports department showing both their physical and mental conditions (Harrelson, Gardner & Winterstein, 2009). This way, the school will have reduced chances of unnecessary injuries and other health problems. Rationale for responsibility of various stakeholders On the other hand, case law over the past few decades has enumerated that school districts and other agencies sponsoring athletic programs should have a legal responsibility to provide medical care to the student athletes (Floyd & Allen, 2009). In fact, some case law judgments have been cited arguing that organizations sponsoring high school athletics and fail to provide with appropriate medical care for athletes, could risk significant liability exposure. Such deliberations can be argued to be necessary because the move will not only ensure the wellness of the students, but also act as an example to schools and other bodies to follow suit. Sponsoring organizations should set up an athletic health care team (AHCT), which among other things will create appropriate policies that will ensure all athletic related issues are addressed accordingly (Floyd & Allen, 2009). Some of the things AHCT should focus on include adherence to safe clinical practice parameters and appropriate physical space and equipment. In this regard, specific policies should be designed to ensure that the school administration, student athletes, and parents are aware of correct procedures concerning athletes’ health that the sponsoring organization has put into place. In essence, physical and equipment concept should involve establishment and maintenance. To do so, the athlete health care annual budgeting should incorporate all necessary budget allocation required for standard physical space and equipment (Eaves, 2010). It is also necessary to have proper documentation of issues relating to the safety of equipment and facility. Documentation should also include athlete injuries, treatment, and above all, reconditioning. Still on the list of what sponsoring organizations need to do is injury surveillance. This is actually argued to be the first step in ensuring athlete and general public injury control strategies. Once injury surveillance data has been collected regularly, the outcomes of the results of the data should be shared with school administration, parents and the general society (Brunner, 2008). It is also noted that student athletes should be concerned about their own heath. It has been documented that some student athletes have had incidences of participating in athletics even with prior knowledge of their unfit health conditions. It is apparent that some students love sports and athlete, and stopping them from. In general terms, the responsibility of student athlete health should be a combined effort of parents, school administration, and athletic directors (Brunner, 2008). Probably, the primary step in establishing a healthcare program for student athletes should be to determine the goals of the program. In this regard, all the involved parties should have an ultimate responsibility for funding and above all, supporting the health care program for student athletes. The level of commitment of all stakeholders will definitely help in determining the size of the facility and quality of the health care, and the scope of operations of the program. The program should have a clear written mission statement should reflect the outcome of the strategic planning process. The process should, however, involve administrators, allied health care providers, student athletes, community leaders, and parents (Floyd & Allen, 2009). The strategic planning should encompass strengths and weaknesses of the program, and in this regard, formulate immediate actions to counteract any deficiencies. The program should be designed in such a way that the athletic trainer must decide the duration to which the athlete will be served. An example of such decisions should involve the extent of prevention and care activities to each student (Harrelson, Gardner & Winterstein, 2009). This should include details like whether students need to be served during the summer and other vocations, or only during competitions. Additionally, the program policy should indicate who other than the athlete will be served by the health care training program. This is of paramount importance because legal concerns dictate who other than athlete is to be served (Floyd & Allen, 2009). At the same time, the program should enumerate whether the coverage is provided for all sports or specific sports, and if it is provided full time or during specific training and sporting times. Additionally, good hygiene and sanitation should also be prioritized and well incorporated in the health care training program (Brunner, 2008). Prevention of infectious diseases should be the responsibility of athlete trainer, who needs to be mandated with the responsibility of seeing that athletes practice good hygiene and live in hygienic environments. Apart from observing hygiene, it is necessary to ensure that all training facilities are installed with an emergency telephone adjacent to them. However, although athlete trainer may observe the above concerns, it is apparent that most school boards do not allocate sufficient budgets that could enable athlete trainers perform their duties effectively (Eaves, 2010). They fail to provide special facilities that ensure smooth learning of the training program. In this regard, it should be noted that school boards need to have sufficient budgets to cater for all facilities needed for training. It is obvious that when some facilities lack, there is a high likelihood of misfortunes occurring during training period. The other major issue of concern is maintenance of equipment used during training. Default equipments can lead to serious problems during the training. It is well documented that some injuries and accidents that occur to athletes occur as a result of use of default equipments (Brunner, 2008). Therefore, it is worth noting that schools should consider keeping such equipments in good shape. Other important issue of concern should be medical history. The health care program should ensure that it stipulates a provision for physical examination and orthopedic screening (Harrelson, Gardner & Winterstein, 2009). This would help identify any past or current medical problems. This is of primary importance because it gives a direction and an insight of how a student athlete found to have such problems need to be handled (Hillman, 2005). The athlete trainer can be in a good position to determine which kind of sporting activity the student should engage in or better still, postpone the training until when the athlete gets better. The athlete can as well be barred from participating in any sporting activity if the trainer finds it inappropriate for the athletes to train or participate in athletics when they have medical problems (Hillman, 2005). Another screening involves cardiovascular screening. This ensures that athletes are well screened in order to indentify life threatening conditions. Maturity assessment requires also be conducted to protect young upcoming athletes. Another major issue of concern is the participation of parents in their children’s athletic issues. In this regard, it is necessary to have parents contribute to what their children do in sporting activities (Brunner, 2008). This is arguably true because in some instances, children may wish to participate in some sporting activities even when they know their health is not fit for sporting. With regard to this, it is essential that parents fill in a consent form as a way of confirming that their children are healthy to any sporting activity. Parents may have a clear knowledge and history of their children’s health conditions (Harrelson, Gardner & Winterstein, 2009). This becomes paramount especially in situations where non physical health conditions are involved and not easily detected by athlete trainer. In the contemporary world, computers have become very resourceful in many aspects. In regard to athletic training, computers can help an athlete trainer manage athlete information in several ways. Trainer can efficiently locate and store athletes’ information with the help of software packages for immediate and future reference (Floyd & Allen, 2009). It is also believed that computer software packages can be used to analyze health information including nutrition, injury risks, body composition and other anthropometric measures. This ways, it can be argued that student athletes’ health will be effectively monitored, something that help reduce various health risks. Conclusion The responsibility of student athlete health cannot be argued to be wholly a sole responsibility of one individual or body. School administration has a role to play in ensuring that the health of student athletes is taken care of. This can be achieved by ensuring that all necessary measures are put in place. This may include hiring of competent athlete trainer, purchasing and maintain appropriate equipments for training, coordinating with sport directors and sponsor organization and parents in order to develop a harmonious health care program suitable for all athlete students. It is also the responsibility of the school administration to ensure that they hire competent athlete trainers. Although the school is not mandated or obliged to fund for health care programs for student athletes, it is indispensable that the school’s sport department consider putting in place all necessary incentives and facilities that could help prevent injury incidences and other health conditions. Parents need to be a bit stringent in matters concerning their children’s health. Apart from participating in training and health programs in school, parents need to take personal responsibility of accessing and availing health insurance policies that covers every member of the family. This will not only ensure that their children are covered when at home, but also when in other places including during sporting places. As discussed earlier, parents should also ensure that they monitor their children’s health and control the kind of sporting activities their children are participating in according to advice from a medical practitioner. In case of any reported cases of health problems, they are supposed to physicians in a timely manner. The government should also take part in ensuring the health of student athlete is taken care of. For example, statutes need to be enacted in order to avail funding for both training and health care programs of secondary student athletes. Although the government cannot be left with the whole responsibility of overseeing the whole issue alone, it can to some extent subsidize some aspect of it. On the other hand, sponsors of athletics need also to take the responsibility of ensuring that student athletes are well taken care of. This can be in terms of participating in training and health care programs. Lastly, student athletes should also be responsible of their own health. They should ensure that their health is checked regularly in order to prevent and address any risks in a prompt manner. References Brunner, M. (2008). Accessibility of Athletic Health Care for High School Student-athletes. New York: California University of Pennsylvania. Health Science & Sport Studies. Eaves, T. (2010). The practical guide to athletic training. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Floyd, P. & Allen, B. (2009). Introduction to careers in health, physical education, and sport. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Harrelson, G., Gardner, G & Winterstein. (2009). Administrative topics in athletic training: concepts to practice. Thorofare, N.J.: SLACK. Hillman, S. (2005). Introduction to athletic training. Champaign (IL): Human Kinetics, cop. Read More