By Katie Varnado, ATC, Midwest Director of Sports Medicine
Athletic training licensure plays an important role in sports safety and protecting the public from unqualified care. Athletic trainers are allied healthcare professionals who specialize in the prevention, emergency care, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and sport-related illnesses. They are highly qualified, multi-skilled health care professionals and have been part of the American Medical Association’s Health Professions Career and Education Directory for more than a decade.
Athletic trainers are assigned National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers like all other health care professionals. Athletic trainers provide care under their individual state practice acts and the rules and regulations the legislative body has developed. Licensure is critical to public safety as only individuals that meet the qualifications set forth by the state can deliver the services. Licensed athletic trainers practice under these statutes that recognize them as qualified healthcare professionals similar to licensure for physical therapists or nurses.
Gaining regulatory status for all athletic trainers ensures that athletic trainers are held to standards to keep our athletes safe and provide care within their scope of practice. Without it, there is no regulation on who can call themselves an athletic trainer or deliver those services, thus putting those with injuries at risk to receive care from someone who in not qualified.