Athletic Training
Megan Maxwell
Honors Mentorship Program
How do athletic trainers evaulate and construct a rehabilitation protocol for
an athlete/patient?
- Rehabilitation: treatment or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from injury, illness, or disease to as normal a condition as possible.
- Protocol: an explicit, detailed plan for a course of medical treatment or for a science experiment.
RESEARCH
-Each patient has their own rehab plan depending on their injury.
-When a patient first comes for rehab, the trainer does a full-body evaluation. They determine where the
patient's pain is at by palpating the injured area.
-They ask questions to the patient when they come in (when accident happened, pain level, where their
pain is located, etc).
- After the full-body evaluation and questions, the trainer creates a customized plan for the patient. This
plan will be based on the patient's objective data and will suit their needs.
- The length of time for rehab varies between patients. It depends on the diagnosis, the severity of
impairments, patient's past medical history, etc.
STEPS OF REHABILITATION
- Acute Care Phase: minimize swelling, reduce pain and get the soft tissues to heal. Try to maintain as
much range of motion as possible.
- Sub-Acute Care Phase: begin strengthening of the injury. Towards the end of the sub-acute phase, the athlete tries to regain balance and and then introduce plyometric exercises (jumping, stair-climbing,
running)
AGE IS JUST A NUMBER
- After an injury/surgery, each patient wants to return back to their ADL’s (activities of daily living). An
athlete's ADL = gettin back to practice and/or on the field.
- Example: a 20 year old basketball player vs. a 60 year old who exercises often. The ADL’s of the 20 year old are going to be different than the 60 year old. Their rehab plans are going to be customized based on their age, injury and what their ADL’s are.
- If the 20 year old and the 60 year old both have a torn ACL, they have the same goal of minimizing swelling, decreasing pain and increasing range of motion. The ways that you go about to achieve those may be different based on their age.
- When can you tell that a person is ready to be finished with rehab?: It depends upon the rate of the patient’s effort to complete rehab. That’s when the AT will complete the discharge.