For National Athletic Training Month 2016 (NATM2016) ATvantage took the National Athletic Trainers’ Association theme of “A Safer Approach to Work, Life, and Sport” one step further to focus on prevention. This is a domain unique to the athletic training profession and sets them apart from other health care professionals. For this reason, ATvantage chose to use prevention as the platform of how athletic trainers provide a safer approach to work, life, and sport.
Below are ways that ATvantage was able to successfully promote National Athletic Training Month.
Practicing Prevention
We solicited the input of our athletic trainers to provide how they practice prevention in their individual ways. We were able to create both video and quote images for each of the nine entries we received. They can be viewed here:
- Alisha Pennington
- Robert Kirkland
- Melanie Silver
- Ginny Garner
- Adrianna Medina
- Raelene Gatewood
- Emmanuel Sanchez
- Cari Zinn
- Norma Lopez
Podcasts
We were also able to participate and produce three podcasts related to athletic training and national athletic training month. The first, our owner Alisha co-hosted the 200th episode of The Sports Medicine Broadcast. She was joined by various guests over a four hour period of live podcasting. She was a guest again to chat about podcasting in athletic training with a few other ATs who have their own podcasts. It was an hour of chatting about what each of them are doing with podcasts and incorporating athletic training. ATvantage also produced its own podcast for NATM2016, focusing on the effectiveness of awareness months. There’s also the recap available for that podcast as well.
Tips & Tricks
Proclamations
ATvantage was able to secure two proclamations from the cities of Anaheim & Covina, which they do business in. Each proclamation afforded us the opportunity to address city council members on the value athletic trainers provide to their communities and educate a new sector of government officials about who athletic trainers are. We are always grateful for these opportunities to get in front of law makers to expand our audience and increase understanding of our profession.
Productions
In addition to the videos submitted by athletic trainers, we took it upon ourselves to produce videos capturing a few ATs speaking more in depth about how they practice prevention. These were filmed professionally and produced internally. They allowed a few athletic trainers to speak more in depth about their practice of prevention. They can be viewed here:
Support
Outside of what we were able to internally create, we supported the efforts of several other organizations and individuals by spreading awareness of their work as well. Here are some of the standout pages and organizations from NATM2016:
- Cuyamaca Athletic Training
- UNLV Rebel Athletic Training Society
- Chase Paulson
- New Mexico Athletic Trainers’ Association
- Ricardo Lockette