Faculty and students from the Marshall University College of Health Professions visited the State Capitol last month to meet with senators and delegates about the importance of instituting athletic training licensure in West Virginia. Currently, 42 states have athletic training licensure and six states, including West Virginia, require only athletic trainer registration.
Zach Garrett, assistant professor of athletic training in the college, said he and his students were given the opportunity to educate state legislators about their profession and discuss the seriousness of mandating regulation for athletic trainers.
“We want to define a scope of practice for our field because there is a concern amongst the athletic training community that there are individuals who practice, but aren’t qualified to do so,” Garrett said. “You want your nurses to be licensed and you want your doctors to be licensed, so why wouldn’t you want your athletic trainers to be licensed?”
Garrett said the state of West Virginia has 290 secondary schools with athletics and only 49 high schools have certified athletic trainers, with fewer than half who work full time. Of the 290 schools, only five are recognized by the National Athletic Training Association (NATA) to be “Safe Sport Schools,” according to Garrett.
West Virginia Del. Richard J. Iaquinta said he supports the idea of athletic training licensure in West Virginia. Iaquinta said it seems like a necessary step when one considers the increasing number of injuries occurring in high school sports.
“We want to protect the safety of our young athletes and any time an injury occurs, we want to set our state’s standards at the highest level for preventing injury,” Iaquinta said. “It makes me sad to know our state is lagging behind and we aren’t providing a necessary service in this competitive sports environment to allow our students to perform to the best of their ability.”
Iaquinta said the athletic training community should expect to see this issue put on the table for the upcoming legislative session in January.
“We want to make this happen no matter how long it takes…it’s too important to ignore,” Iaquinta said.
Rachel Blum, an athletic training student in Marshall’s program, said having the chance to discuss important issues such as these with state legislators was an amazing experience.
“This is the future of our profession and being given the opportunity to weigh in on this topic that has such impact in the athletic training community was awesome,” Blum said. “Students and faculty from University of Charleston, West Virginia University and Concord will be visiting the State Capitol during the next several months and we hope with our combined efforts, we will be able to make athletic training licensure a possibility in West Virginia.”
To learn more about the NATA Safe Sport Schools, visit http://www.nata.org/safe-sports-school-award online. For more information on other states’ athletic training regulations, visit and view the state regulation map at http://www.bocatc.org/state-regulation/map.
To learn more about the Marshall University Department of Athletic Training, visit www.marshall.edu/cohp online.
