I recently wrote a piece, "Emergency or Opportunity?", that highlighted the current HB 1055 bill that is making its way through Georgia's Senate. I have just started this blog, so I did not expect many readers to see my post. I was shocked and very humbled, however, when Paul Higgs, President of the Georgia Athletic Trainer's Assoc, provided an in-depth response to my posting.
Being relatively new to athletic training (I only graduated and passed my licensure exam this past May) and even newer to the field of physical therapy, I greatly appreciated the time Mr. Higgs took to respond to my post. It was a great learning experience for me, and I hope it will be enlightening for you as well.
2 comments:
Moving away from the bill for one second, I would like to pose the following question:
If you were a recreational athlete/weekend warrior and sprained your ankle and felt you needed some rehab, who would you go to or recommend someone else in that situation go to - an ATC or a PT certified in ortho or sports?
This is just for the sake of debate... you clearly have a unique perspective being involved in both professions. Why did you choose to continue on with a PT degree after achieving your ATC?
Back to the bill for one second... while competition may be a good thing, it can also be a very confusing thing in this very confusing healthcare period we are faced with.
I am very curious what the PTAG did say about the bill and how it all turns out.
As a soon to be PT myself I welcome competition but feel transparency is more appropriate to improve consumer care. How can we achieve transparency? Perhaps by clearing up all the language out there and making things as simple as possible as far as who to go see when you do have a certain kind of injury.
Bo,
I appreciate you questions. I will save the response to your first question for a forthcoming post I am planning, but I will answer your second question here. I continued on to PT school for a couple of reasons. One, I looked forward to the more in depth training I would receive, especially in neuro (as this is something, besides concussion management, that is not taught in depth in your typical ATC course load). The second, most important reason is having a PT degree will make my career goal more achievable. My ultimate goal is to be the head of sports medicine at a Div 1 School. For whatever reason, most of the premier schools look for PTs or PAs to fill that role.
As for the rest of your comments, I agree transparency is key for the consumer. As much as is said about the poor marketing PTs have done, I don't think we will see the general public anytime soon immediately think of seeing an ATC for rehab after they are hurt. If you think about it, the only time you really hear about an ATC is on ESPN, so I think most people do associate ATCs strictly with athletics and PTs for the general public. The point with my original post was to try and show that PTs and ATCs can and should work together to provide optimal care for orthopedic patients.
Thanks again for your comments.
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