| Description |
Not all sports medicine programs have the recommended equipment and supplies that the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) has suggested in published position statements for appropriately managing emergency situations. Not all sports medicine programs have the recommended documentation of Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) that has also been published in position statements. The conditions covered in this study include the three most common causes of fatalities in football found in 2012, sudden cardiac arrest, catastrophic brain injuries, and exertional heat stroke, as well as seven additional causes of catastrophic injury and fatalities in sport: exertional sickling, asthma, cervical spine injuries, head-down contact in football, diabetes, exertional hyponatremia, and lightning. The Pac-12 institutions were surveyed about their recommended equipment and EAP elements suggested by the NATA. Eight institutions provided information and survey responses to be included in the study. We had two hypotheses: 1) There would be lower instances of sudden death and catastrophic injury in sport at institutions that have the NATA recommended amount and types of emergency equipment and supplies, as well as properly written emergency action plans for athletic trainers to use. 2) Institutions with the NATA recommended amount and types of emergency equipment and supplies, as well as properly written EAPs for athletic trainers to use would have higher confidence in emergency preparedness during treatment of potential catastrophic injury and sudden death incidences. We created a survey tool to measure emergency preparedness of EAPs (EAP EP), emergency preparedness of equipment and supplies (Total Equipment EP), and confidence in emergency preparedness (EP Confidence). EAP EP Score and Total Equipment EP Score had a -0.955 statistically significant correlation (p=0.003). EAP EP Score and EP Confidence had a 0.241 correlation with no statistical significance (p=0.646). Total Equipment EP and EP Confidence had a -0.407 correlation with no statistical significance (p=0.423). Neither hypothesis were supported or disproven with the survey results and data analysis. Further emergency preparedness research needs to be conducted to start rewriting national position statements. |
