Sudden Cardiac Arrest Legislation

On January 1st, 2016 new legislation related to sudden cardiac arrest prevention in Tennessee will go into effect. The new legislation was passed by the Tennessee State Legislature in April 2015. The legislation is similar in language and scope to the previously enacted concussion legislation in Tennessee. This legislation will have tremendous impact in preventing injury to the youth athletes of Tennessee at all levels. The impact to athletic trainers in Tennessee is also significant and requires that all ATs are extremely aware of these new changes in legislation.

Recently more details have been updated on the Tennessee Department of Health website, including resources for education of athletes, parents, coaches, and other school officials. The required forms related to this legislation have also now been made available. This information has been conveyed by the TSSAA to all secondary schools in Tennessee, however the legislation has broader impact than just at the secondary school level. TATS encourages all members and the general public to take time to review the available resources from the Tennessee Department of Health at http://www.tn.gov/health/topic/sudden-cardiac-arrest-prevention-act/.

Call for Nominations - TATS 2016 Awards

The Tennessee Athletic Trainers' Society Honors & Awards Committee is pleased to announce its call for nominations for all TATS Awards for 2016. Award categories include the following:

• Sports Medicine Person of the Year
• Joe Worden Clinic / Professional Athletic Trainer Award
• Sandy Sandlin High School Athletic Trainer Award
• Eugene Smith / Mickey O’Brien College Athletic Trainer Award
• Backbone Award
• Jerry Robertson Educator Award
• Corporate Award
• Lifesaver Award
• TATS Hall of Fame (This requires a separate nomination process - See Below.)

The 2016 TATS Honors & Awards will be presented to our honored recipients at the 2016 Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposium held on January 16th & 17th, 2016. If you know of a deserving individual, please take a few minutes to recognize this person for their outstanding achievements and dedication to the athletic training profession.

Additionally, the TATS Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the call for applications for the Undergraduate and Graduate Athletic Training Student of the Year awards. The recipient of the Undergraduate and Graduate Athletic Training Student of the Year Award will each receive a $1,000.00 scholarship. The applications for all Student of the Year awards can be found by visiting the Scholarship Committee Page. UPDATE: Nominations are no closed

You can learn more about all of the honors and awards presented by TATS or you nominate a deserving individual by visiting the Honors & Awards Committee page.

The deadline for nominations is November 15th, 2015.

Thank you in advance for your nomination and we look forward to hearing of all the amazing work that athletic trainers have been doing throughout Tennessee this year.

Need EBP CEUs? Here's another opportunity!

 

The Hughston Foundation, in conjunction with Rutherford County Schools is providing athletic trainers with a one day opportunity to earn up to 10 EBP continuing education credits. The event will be held on Tuesday, July 14th, 2015 at Central Magnet School. To find out more details click here.

2015 TATS Election Results

 

TATS Executive Board Nominations & Elections were held throughout April and May. We had good participation in this year's election process even with all nominees running unopposed. The results from this year's Executive Board elections are as follows:

• President - Scott Byrd
• Vice President - Peggy Bratt
• Secretary - Clint Sanders
• Treasurer - Therese Sparn
• East TN Representative - Mike Van Bruggen
• Middle TN Representative - Tim Hoskins
• West TN Representative - Tripp Turner

Congratulations to the incoming Executive Board members who will begin their terms to serve TATS and its members at the Annual Meeting next January.

Decisions Made Regarding Future of Athletic Training Education

 

Last week the AT Strategic Alliance announced changes to the entry level degree for athletic training. Much of this change was influenced by discussions between CAATE and NATA members from an open comment survey in March. This decision will have major impact on our profession for years to come. The NATA and AT Strategic Alliance have put together some information related to these changes that every athletic trainer should read. This information can be found through the links below.

AT Strategic Alliance Statement Degree Change FAQs

2015 UT Sports Medicine Symposium Recap

On Monday, May 4th, 2015, University of Tennessee hosted its second annual Sports Medicine Symposium in conjunction with a TATS East Region Meeting. The free event was held on the UT Knoxville campus in the Anderson Training Center and featured presentations on rehabilitation of hip arthroscopies and concussion management. Three Evidence Based Practice CEUs were earned by attendees.

Dr. Chuck Thigpen of Proaxis Therapy in Greeneville, South Carolina provided insight into the rehabilitation of intra-articular hip injuries, primarily femoral acetabular impingement and labral tears. Dr. Thigpen said of hip rehab, “I think it is challenging because it is a fast-evolving approach of how we manage that within the athletic training room and rehab facility as we get kids back to sport.” For him, it was a bit of a homecoming, having played football at UT-Chattanooga and graduating the Physical Therapy program at East Tennessee State. Additionally, Dr. Thigpen previously served as an intern at UT. “I have a strong connection to East Tennessee. It’s really exciting to get to come home.” he said.

UT Team Physician Dr. Christopher Klenck presented information on current trends in concussion management. He gave an overview of UT’s concussion management plan, highlighting new research findings and concepts that should be considered when developing management strategies. Next, UT Director of Sports Medicine Jason McVeigh provided a number of case studies related to concussion and facilitated a lively discussion among attendees.

At the conclusion of the symposium, TATS East Tennessee Representative Mike Van Bruggen provided an update of TATS business to the membership in attendance. He reported that the 2016 TATS Annual Meeting and Symposium will be January 16th and 17th in Nashville. Mike also described the “Hit the Hill” activities of TATS members on April 7 in which TATS members met with Tennessee legislators in Nashville about a host of issues. Mike specifically identified two upcoming pieces of legislation related to sports activity for Athletic Trainers in the state to monitor. SB0985 and HB32 – both titled “Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act”—require education of coaches, administrators, parents, and youth athletes about the risk and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest and set forth return to play guidelines similar to Tennessee’s Sports Concussion Law. He also reported that TATS representation was present at the Tennessee Interscholastic Athletic Administrators conference in Murfreesboro in April and will also have a booth at the Emergency Medical Services meeting in July. Mike recognized Cocke County High School and Cosby High School as recipients of NATA’s Safe Sports School award, bringing the number of Tennessee schools having received that honor to eight.

Lastly, Mike reminded the TATS members in attendance that elections are begin held now for all TATS executive board member positions and encouraged participation in voting.

Announcing Elections for the TATS Executive Board

The elections for the TATS Executive Board begin tomorrow, May 1st, 2015 and run through May 15th, 2015. All Certified-Active and Certified-Retired members of the Tennessee Athletic Trainers' Society are eligible to vote in this election. It is important that all members participate in the election by voting to make your voice heard. The candidates for the upcoming Executive Board positions are as follows:

• President - Scott Byrd
• Vice President - Peggy Bratt
• Secretary - Clint Sanders
• Treasurer - Therese Sparn
• East Tennessee Representative - Mike Van Bruggen
• Middle Tennessee Representative - Tim Hoskins
• West Tennessee Representative - Tripp Turner

To learn more about each of the candidates for office, visit the TATS Election Page at http://www.tnata.org/2015-tats-elections.

Voting can be completed online via this link OR members can submit a written ballot to Kevin Wolf, TATS Parliamentarian. The preferred method of communication is online. Written ballots must be sent by USPS mail to 1527 Shagbark Trail, Murfreesboro, TN 37130. Written ballots are available here.

Voting ends at midnight ET on May 15th, 2015.

President's Blog - Summer 2015

I hope everyone is having a good spring sports season, it seems like we just go started and within a few short weeks we will see new state champions crowned. Since the Annual meeting we have had a few exceptional projects that have produced better than expected outcomes.

Hill day was a tremendous success this year as we were able to meet and discuss Athletic training topics with 6 elected officials. We had a great turn out of members but also 14 MTSU students gave up a morning to come to the Hill. We had many productive meetings discussing current legislation in committee related to sudden cardiac death, as well as thanking legislators for their support of our previous concussion legislation. Keep an eye out also for SB985 / HB32 Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act. This new legislation Creates the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act. Similar to the Concussion law, it Requires governing authorities engaged in school youth athletic activities and activity fee charging organizations engaged in community-based youth athletic activities to adopt programs to train and educate coaches, school administrators, youth athletes, and their parents or guardians of the nature, risk, and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest.

Moving forward we are excited about ideas to improve our presence on the Hill. Please I urge to be on the look out for ways to help us with our Governmental Affairs initiatives.

We have also secured a booth at the 2015 EMS / Education Conference in Murfreesboro on July 8 - 10, 2015. We have worked out an arrangement with the TNEMSEA organizers to allow us to present AT related info to their constituents and we will host them at our annual meeting in January.

The annual TIAAA/AD conference was a great success this year with us making new contacts and getting requests for information to pass along to School Administrations to try to create new ATC positions within the Secondary school setting. I have been requested to attend a school system board meeting to present on this topic from the meeting.

TATS is proud to be partnering with the University of Tennessee Sports Medicine Department to host their annual Spring Sports Medicine Symposium. The symposium is a FREE EBP CEU event on May 4th, 2015 from 8am - Noon. Topics include Hip Arthroscopy, Concussion, and the TATS East Regional Meeting. The event will be held in the Anderson Training Center on UT's campus. Registration for the event has now closed due to such high demand. Registrants will be receiving further details about the conference via email from Robb Duncanson. You can learn more on the TATS website. We are looking forward to this being a great event.

Executive Board Elections will be starting soon too. Please exercise your right and vote! We, as the TATS EB, would love to see record or near record turn out for this year's elections!

The TATS Facebook page has reached 250 members! we will be trying to keep you more informed about the Middle and West regional meetings through social media as the confirm the dates and times

I hope everyone gets an opportunity to recharge over the summer and hope to see you in St Louis!

- Scott

Update - 2015 UT Symposium & TATS Regional Meeting

The registration for the 2015 UT Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting was excellent this year and has gone well over capacity. Registration for the event has now been closed. For those who will be in attendance, UT has received approval from the BOC for 3 EBP CEU credits from this meeting. All of those who have registered for the event will be receiving further details via email from the conference organizer Robb Duncanson, MEd, ATC, LAT, CSCS. TATS is excited about the upcoming event and looks forward to seeing all those in attendance.

If you have any further questions, please contact Robb at Duncanson@utk.edu or 865-293-6345.

Also, information related to the Middle & West Tennessee Regional Meetings will be coming to the TATS website and T-Blast Newsletter soon.

NATM Receives Proclamations Throughout Tennessee

Members of TATS throughout the state were instrumental in promoting the athletic training profession throughout the month of March. The local governments of several Tennessee cities and counties recognized March as National Athletic Training Month through government proclamations. Some of the areas that received proclamations included:

• City of Murfreesboro
• Knox County
• City of Knoxville
• Jefferson County

NATM was also recognized with a proclamation presented to TATS members from the Tennessee State Legislature while we were visiting Capitol Hill in early April. Below you will find several of the proclamations from the various parts of the state. If you received a proclamation from your local government representatives and are not mentioned here, please let us know at communications@tnata.org.

Here the Mayor of Murfreesboro is joined by local athletic trainers during the signing of a proclamation for National Athletic Training Month.

Front Row from L to R: Chance Ragsdale, Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland, Brad Rohling Back Row from L to R: Blake Sissom, Amanda Januchowski, and Stephen Maples Not Pictured (but present): Kristi Phillips

Text of the Proclamation from Madeline Rogers, Mayor of the City of Knoxville

Youth Sports Safety Conference & Gala

The Program for Injury Prevention in Youth Sports at Vanderbilt is hosting the Youth Sports Safety Conference & Gala on July 16th & 17th, 2015. Athletic trainers throughout the state of Tennessee are invited to attend this educational event. Details can be found on the flier below and also at the PIPYS website.

TATS Day On The Hill

On Tuesday April 7th, 17 TATS members, ascended onto Capitol Hill for our “day on the hill”. We were accompanied by Zach Bates, our legislative liaison, who had set several appointments with legislators in advance. While we did not have a specific want or need from lawmakers at this time we were able to continue to foster relationships previously established as well as begin some anew.

It was a good opportunity for athletic trainers to say thank you for the work that had been done with regard to the concussion bill and the protection of health and wellbeing of the athletes that we serve. We even had one legislator who agreed to sign on to support the sudden cardiac bill when we made him aware of the current legislation.

Another byproduct of our meeting was the initiation of talks, with the members of the executive board, to develop a strategic plan as to how we go about strengthening our relationships with legislators and being more of a presence on Capitol Hill.

A special shout out goes to the 10 MTSU athletic training students who showed to support our efforts; Amanda Januchowski, Brandi Caruso, Chris Miles, Colin Biegas, Dabrisha Garner, Isaiah Foster, Matt Warner, McKenzie Leonard, Pali Dingler, and Trey Link.

Call For EB Nominations

It is once again time for TATS elections. This announcement serves as the official call for nominations for all elected offices for TATS. The following offices are up for election to two-year terms:

• President
• Vice-President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• East Tennessee Representative
• Middle Tennessee Representative
• West Tennessee Representative

Any Certified-Active or Certified-Retired member of TATS is eligible to nominate their colleagues for the TATS Executive Board offices. To determine a TATS member’s eligibility to serve in any of these offices, please look at Article IV of the TATS by-laws on the TATS website. You can also download the most recent TATS By-Laws on the TATS website.

Please send all nominations to Kevin Wolf, TATS Parliamentarian. The preferred method of communication for nominations is by e-mail at kwolfatc@yahoo.com. Nominations may also be sent by USPS mail to 1527 Shagbark Trail, Murfreesboro, TN 37130.

Nominations will officially close at midnight ET on April 16, 2015.

Spring 2015??

I hope that everyone has been able to stay warm during the latest round of weather that has basically stopped the state from being able to function. I applaud the TSSAA for stepping up and postponing the Region Basketball tourney to allow ample time to let schools finish their district finals. Let's hope that the next band of weather will allow that to happen before the regions start on Monday. This years TATS Annual Meeting and Symposium was a tremendous success. I sincerely want to thank everyone on the Professional Education Committee who logged many hours to make this a special meeting. The Executive Board has worked very hard to enhance our visibility and transparency to the membership. Our EB is one of the very finest I have ever had the privilege of working with. As we continue to work toward overcoming challenges that face our organization, I want to continually encourage our membership to stay or become active. The latest NATA election shows that we still have less than 20% (17.2 to be exact) who are taking part in the decision making processes for our organization. 835 Members strong, making us the 3rd largest group in SEATA. I want to encourage our membership to make a statement with the upcoming TATS elections this year. I want to see us reach an easily obtainable goal of 30% voting. Obviously I would love to see that Number higher, but lets make small steps toward a larger goal

We will once again be sponsoring a booth at the 104.5 Sports Fest in Nashville. If you are in the area, please swing by and support the booth and the event. We have confirmed a booth at the TIAAA conference again. Last year was a good start for TATS at this event. 2 schools have picked up full time coverage from the information we were sharing. We have a tremendous support from the Athletic Directors and look forward to making this an annual event.

Please follow us on Facebook or Twitter to enhance our communication with our members! If you have any items you want to be considered for posting on the web site or social media, please reach out to Clint Sanders or one of our TATS board members.

Be on the lookout for information coming out from SEATA regarding the Safe Sports School Award. The SEATA Executive Board has created a fund to allow schools that are making a financial decision not to apply. SEATA will match up to the full amount depending on need. SEATA's D9 NATA SSATC representative will be reaching out to the state SSATC chairs soon to discuss the process for applying for the grant.

Please help us as we continue to make TATS Stronger! Every member has a voice and makes a difference. Please reach out to our Leadership Team if you have any comments or concerns!

Thank You for all you do to make TATS better!

Respectfully,

Scott

UT Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting

We hope this finds you doing well and having a good Spring Semester so far. We are happy to announce that once again, in conjunction with TATS, we are hosting a Free CEU event at the University of Tennessee. Please see the information and link below for details and registration – space is limited for this event. We know it is a little late notice, but we look forward to seeing you there!

What: 2015 University of Tennessee Spring Sports Medicine Symposium & TATS East Regional Meeting

When: Monday, May 4, 2015 - 8:00 AM – Noon

Where: University of Tennessee - Anderson Training Center, 1551 Lake Loudoun Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37996

Topics: Hip Arthroscopy, Concussion, TATS Discussion

CEU: 3.0 EBP CEU’s

Cost: Free

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

We will send additional information to all registered attendees a few days prior to the event. If you need additional information, please feel free to contact me at Duncanson@utk.edu or 865-293-6345.

Thanks, Robb Duncanson, MEd, ATC, LAT, CSCS Assistant Director of Sports Medicine University of Tennessee Sports Medicine 1551 Lake Loudoun Boulevard Knoxville, Tennessee 37996

C: 865-293-6345 P: 865-974-1231 F: 865-974-1259