High School athletes risk more injuries because shrinking school budgets cut athletic trainers

High School athletes are being affected by the lack of medical attention that is a result of tight school budgets. Schools are forced to prioritize between giving students good quality education and giving them a holistic athletic experience that includes hiring athletic trainers. This lack of professional guidance is contributing to children suffering from injuries, as they are not taught the proper techniques and methods to avoid injuries that only athletic trainers provide.

As stated in the Washington Post’s article “Playing It Safe With High School Sports”, each year more than seven million high school students participate in interscholastic sports but not all of them are interacting with an athletic trainer. Statistics show that Hawaii is the only state that has an athletic trainer in all of their schools while state such as Oklahoma have an athletic trainer in only 26 percent of their schools.

In high schools, there is one athletic trainer for 300 to 500 children. This statistic is striking when compared to the athletic trainer-to-athlete ratio in college sports where there are two to four trainers for one college football team composed of only 120 athletes. It is important to recall that regardless of the level of play, there is still a risk of injury if athletes are not provided with the necessary resources and proper health care professionals to back them up. It is also extremely crucial to take preventative measures to treat school aged children as they are in midst of development. 

High school student athletes may be more susceptible to extensive injuries when they are not treated immediately

The difference between having a minor injury and suffering a life-threatening injury or medical condition can be narrowed down to whether or not an athletic trainer was present at the time of the incident. Athletic trainers are trained to attend to  a wide range of medical conditions that may rise from playing sports. These medical conditions range from but are not limited to heat strokes, fractures, cardiac problems, and head injuries


Head injuries in particular are becoming a growing concern for both parents and health professionals. With nearly 300,000 sport-related traumatic brain injuries, predominantly concussions, that are affect both high school and collegiate each year it is crucial to address this problem. As mentioned by high school teacher and former coach, Tucker Schrumm, athletic trainers help prevent these injuries by taking certain precautions prior to the athlete starting his/her sports season. Athletic trainers are also said to be an asset to the development of the high school athlete.

As reported by the CNN article, concussions have proven to be high school athlete's worst enemy as these youths are at a higher risk for concussions. The article also mentions that when young athletes do suffer from a concussion, they refuse to report it whether it being out of fear of playing or simply because they are not aware of how serious a brain injury can be if left untreated. For this reason, it is crucial to have trainers that are able to recognize the symptoms of these brain injuries and enforce the health protocols that have been set in place to keep the child safe.

For injuries such as heat strokes, every second counts. It is said that the core body temperature of the athlete has to fall below 104 degrees within half an hour of the collapse in order to prevent further damage. According to director of Athletic Training Education at the University of Connecticut, Dr. Douglas J. Casa, no athlete has died when athletic trainers and medical providers succeeded in decreasing his body temperature to below 104 within the specific time frame. This situation, however, does not have a happy ending when a school lacks an athletic trainer that can be on the scene and provide this medical attention immediately. In cases such as these, the student relies on how fast the medical emergency responders get to the scene which is valuable time that may have catastrophic outcomes.

Athletic trainers are essential in the development of athletes as they prevent, diagnose, treat injuries

According to a National Athletic Training Association (NATA) document, athletic trainers are health care professionals that along with physicians diagnose, treat, and prevent injuries. Certified athletic trainer, Maggie Glass, believes that athletic trainers are fundamental in the sport careers of these young athletes.

Athletic trainers are trained to conduct pre-participation physical exams that aid to the prevention of injuries. These examinations are essential when it comes to making sure athletes are physically ready to begin practicing and playing in order to avoid injuries during the season. Trainers also have the task of educating athletes, coaches, and parents on the many strategies that help prevent injuries. These preventative strategies include warming up, staying hydrated, and strength and conditioning exercises. An example of preventative care is also helping athletes by checking for minor aches and taping parts of the body that may need a little extra support such as ankles, finger, and wrists.

Glass examining a student athlete
before practice

In terms of diagnosing injuries, athletic trainers are educated and have received training to be able to
effectively examine athletes who have suffered injuries that range from acute to chronic injuries. The trainer looks at the athlete's medical history, performs a physical examination, until he/she arrives at a diagnosis. During this time, the athletic trainer may also consult with other specialists to make sure they have reached a proper diagnostic.

Once the injury has been diagnosed, the athletic trainer provides the athlete with a personalized plan and assists the athlete with his/her recovery. The plan may include anything from rehabilitation exercises to manual therapy or even modalities such as electrical stimulation.

A lack of communication between coaches and athletic trainers can cloud the benefits of having an athletic trainer 

A certified athletic trainer at Metro Orthopedics and Sports Therapy, Mark Kang, believes it is important to acknowledge that even if a school does have an athletic trainer present, there are additional obstacles that need to be overcome. Just with everything that is new, it takes time to adjust to the emerging paradigm shift.  High Schools that have recently hired an athletic trainer will be faced with the challenge of teaching coaches and student athletes the role of the athletic trainer and why there is a need for them in high schools. If the coaches and students do not respect the authority and expertise of these trainers and do not utilize this new resource then there is no point in having an athletic trainer.

Coaches and athletes alike need to rely on their athletic trainer to keep them safe and should report any injury or concerns right away. However, this is not always the case.

Student athletes are doing everything they can to continue playing the sport they love. As mentioned in the USA Today article, the Safe Kids Worldwide study has found that 54 percent of young athletes have played while being injured, 42 percent of athletes have downplayed their injuries, and 53 percent of coaches have attested to feeling pressured by athletes and parents to let the athlete back on the field.

This information is striking since the health of these student athletes is being compromised by the lack of authority some athletic trainers have to keep injured players off of the field. It is important that the athletic trainers have a say on whether or not an athlete gets played. Whether or not they will admit to it, coaches may take on the role of biased spectators and being to make decisions for the sake of the team as a whole and fail to look out for the safety of an athlete. For this reason, athletic trainers need to be able to step in and respectfully challenge this decision. 

Hiring athletic trainers is crucial for high school athletes as the level of participation and pressure among student athletes continues to increase

According to statistics provided by an article published in the Journal of Sports Medicine, high school athletes accounted for 2,000,000 injures, 500,000 doctor visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations. Special attention needs to be given to this topic since, according to the National Federation of High Schools, there has been a 37% increase in the number of boys and girls that participate in sports. Keeping this new wave of athletes safe should be of top priority for school officials.

Athletes are taking matters into their own hands and are choosing to play injured. According to the Safe Kids Worldwide study, 18 percent of the kids that played injured chose to do so because they believed their injury "wasn't that bad", 13 percent "couldn't let the team down, and 12 percent "did not want to get benched". These results are astonishing as they reflect the pressure these children are putting on themselves to play. The kids would rather push through the pain than let their team down.

By acting in this manner, children are putting themselves at a higher risk of a severe injury by going back into the game. Having a coach present during practices and especially during the games is not enough to keep athletes safe. High School athletes, as well as athletes in general, need to understand that choosing to ignore an injury for the sake of playing and not letting their team down is actually making the situation worse. Athletic trainers help ease the transition from playing to resting on the bench by educating both parents and athletes on the importance of resting and providing them with a rehabilitation plan.

Virtual characters are embodying stereotypes that are affecting the body-esteem of both teenage boys and girls

Research points in the direction that the avatars available in some of the most popular games of the video game industry are having detrimental effects on the self-esteem of teens both boy and girls alike. This information is alarming since younger generations are now spending longer periods of time behind a controller and submerged in the fantasy world of video games. 

Video game characters are depicted as attractive and muscular men and women. Specifically, women in video games are more likely to be sexualized with small hips, large breasts, and likely to show more skin than their male counterparts. Stereotypes of lonely gamers and sexy game girls drive video game character designs. 

The choice of creating an avatar for women who play computer games is one that is not taken lightly.  According to Mateusz Woźniak, recent research on the neural activity of gamers in response to their World of Warcraft  avatar also suggests that players tend to create their avatars based on how they want to look as oppose to how they actually look. This act further divides the virtual world of video games from reality since gamers are unleashing their deepest of fantasies. 

Teen girls are likely to have low body-esteem after interacting with virtual characters

Current standards of beauty that gamers are interacting with do not agree with reality. Just like the media and the modeling industry have created an "ideal image"for women that is almost impossible for your average woman to imitate, the world of gaming is having the same effect on the younger generation of teen girls that cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy. 

In this case, the use of photoshop and other marketing tools has been traded in for the wide range of options that give gamers the opportunity to create their ideal character. Recent video games give gamers the option to select features such as eye color, height, weight, and muscle tone among many other features.These realistic features have made it easy for gamers to become fully immersed in their character and therefore feel like they are part of this virtual world. 

The action of immersing oneself in the virtual world is creating body image problems among teenage girls. A recent research study has found that teenage girls who play video games with virtual characters that embody the demeanor of small hips, large breasts, and toned bodies are likely to have a decrease in body-esteem. 

This study is one that should be taken seriously since a negative body-image has been proven to be positively correlated with depression, anxiety and other psychological conditions that can affect the development of a teenage girl. If girls are not taught to differentiate between the fantasy they have created and reality, we can be seeing more teens that are not happy with their body image. 

Teen boys have also shown to be affected after interacting with virtual characters by wanting to improve their body image 

The very same study showed that teen boys were also affected by the inaccurate representation of the ideal male body image depicted in the virtual characters. 

Upon being interviewed, the teenage boys that played the video game that emphasized the ideal body as "muscular" showed signs of a decrease positive feeling towards their own body and an increase in their positive drive of muscularity. The study also showed that when the virtual character was not muscular, the male participants seemed to decrease their positive drive for muscularity. This shows that the image represented by the virtual character did impact the body perception of the individual even in those few minutes that the participant was playing the game.  

The problem with this situation as highlighted by the article is that  this urgency to look muscular and fit the demeanor of the male fictitious character can push teens to want to try substances such as steroids to reach their desired body image. 

The rapid increase of teenagers that play video games is a wake up call for parents to step in a take action 

Within the last couple of years, video game participation among teens has seen an increase in numbers. As shown in the chart, in all four categories, the numbers show a large percentage of teens that play video games. The information provided by the PEW Research Center is alarming since video games can have detrimental effects in the self-esteem of children especially during this age if they are not supervised. 

If not educated on the topic by parents or another family member, children can easily lose sight of what is real and what is fantasy. This can cause problems not only with their body image but when it comes to the way they socialize and render academically. 

Sources: 
http://liminalities.net/11-1/stretching.pdf
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-overview-2015/pi_2015-04-09_teensandtech_16/
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=eccb458f-0eef-427e-9f31-f4d81e2167b6%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=116

Cyber security breaches continue to cloud the success of big businesses and leave customers feeling skeptical

The interactive infographic reveals detailed information on the major cyber security breaches to date. The graphic allows the reader to view the breaches in both chronological order and the intensity of the breaching. We are able to easily recognize that in 2007, TK/TJ-Maxx has the record for the biggest retail breach up to date with 94,000,000 records stolen. According to the data presented in the infographic, this particular breach occurred in Minnesota when hackers hacked the store wifi and the credit card information of many was compromised. The year 2009 was the year of two major breaches- one involving the US military and the other Heartland. The US military was compromised when information containing the personal information of about 76,000,000 veterans was left unencrypted and vulnerable for attack. Heartland, an independent processor, holds the tittle for the largest credit card scam in history with 130,000,000 records compromised. In order to settle these claims, Heartland was forced to pay off a large sum of money to major credit card companies such as American Express and MasterCard.
Between the years 2010 and 2010, there were a greater number of small breaches that affected less than 35,000,000 records with the exception of Sony. The Sony breach of 2010 affected 76,000,000 user accounts. The following year was marked by two major breaches. Personal records containing sensitive information of about 200,000,000 people from a firm now known as Experian were sold to a Vietnamese theft service. The other breach revolved around major retail chains, banks, and processing companies. Here, more than 160,000,000 records were compromised. Recently, we have the case of Target where thanks to software that was installed on the machines customers use to scan their card 70,000,000 records were retrieved.
The infographic allows readers to truly investigate the area of breaches. It not only shows how many records were compromised but also gives more insight as to what occurred and provides a link to a reputable source where one can learn more about the breach. It was shocking to see how the number of breaches increased throughout the 9-year period and triggered me to think if there are many other cyber security threats that we may not know of yet.

Gap joins the fight to end unfair scheduling and announces an end to their "on-call" shifts by 2016. http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/gap-says-it-will-end-on-call-scheduling-in-stores#.fvEl4MY0L

Working on-call shifts not only affects the older working class but also impacts college students. Having a tentative work schedule brings about academic challenges for students since planning ahead is not an option for them. I hope that by sharing this article my circle of friends will get a glimpse of  the efforts being made to create awareness and advocate for change on this particular matter.