Taping. It’s both the bane and reason for an athletic trainer’s existence. Many people believe all ATs do is tape and give out water, but what many people don’t realize is that there is a lot of effort that goes into perfecting a tape job. First of all, there has to be a reason for the tape job which requires lots of research. Second, the AT must know the anatomy and physiology of the body in order to apply it properly. If an AT pulled ankle stirrup lateral to medial, you can bet he or she should be expecting a lawsuit. Third, tape has a mind of its own and the AT must obey its demands otherwise you bet there’s going to be a wrinkle. Wrinkles lead to friction which will lead to a callus or blister which will lead to the AT having to cut it off. This all could have been avoided it the AT obeyed the tape. Finally, I can almost guarantee anyone criticizing ATs for only taping and giving out water has never tried to rip tape. Ripping tape is a struggle that will leave you very disappointed in yourself if you don’t know how to do it correctly.
On a more serious note, it can be hard to beat the stigma that all athletic trainers do is give out water and tape, especially since that’s often times all people will see. What really matters is that the athletes know we are more than just water boys and girls. If they understand we come from an intense program and do everything we do with the athlete’s best interest in mind, then I think we are doing our job correctly and Athletic trainers shouldn’t worry too much about the stigma. If athletic trainers do run into people who don’t understand what we do, we have to make sure we educate people so they know we are more than what they think, but not act offended. If they are being jerks about it then hand them a roll of tape and tell them to try it out and see how wrong they are about us. This week I got 5 attempts.
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This is where I do my weekly clinical blog assignment. There is either a prompt I am responding to, or I just talk about something exciting I saw during the week.
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April 2019
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