By Sara McCloskey

It’s a parent of a student athlete’s worst fear: Seeing your kid fall to the ground and not get up right away. In the stands, you're watching from afar – anxiously waiting to see who will help them up.

That person is oftentimes a certified athletic trainer, like Emily Huss, MS, LAT, ATC. She’s the outreach lead athletic trainer for VCU Health’s Outreach Athletic Training Program in the Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. The department contracts with more than 20 athletic programs at high schools and colleges in Central Virginia to provide athletic trainers.

“We see most of our injuries in game-like situations. We provide coverage for all games and practices at our schools,” said Huss, who serves as the lead athletic trainer for Carver Academy in Chesterfield County. “One of the really important things to be on top of for our athletes is making sure kids are returning to practice as their doctor recommends.”

Huss’s work goes beyond game day. Within half an hour before afternoon practices, students from all different sports teams come into her athletic training room for treatments and evaluations, depending on their injuries. That includes everything from heating, icing, stretching – all sorts of physical therapy-focused rehabilitation – and wound care before getting on the field or watching their teammates from the sidelines.

Every day is different. But being a positive influence on student-athletes, as well as a resource to schools that need it the most are things Huss and her colleagues don’t take for granted.

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Emily Huss, MS, LAT, ATC, is the outreach lead athletic trainer for VCU Health’s program and works with Carver Academy in Chesterfield County (Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications).

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The school districts and colleges that the department works with struggle to obtain a full-time athletic trainer, so many reach out to VCU Health in hopes of partnering to receive these services. The program started in 2012 with Virginia Union University, which contracted one athletic trainer.

"I was the first person hired in that position. We didn't have an athletic training program at that point,” explained Nicole Stevens, MS, MBA-HCM, ATC, the program manager for the Department of Sports Medicine. She was first hired by Tom Loughran, M.D., the founding medical director of the VCU Health’s Sports Medicine Clinic. “Now, we've gone from Virginia Union and me to 20 plus schools and 20 plus athletic trainers.”

With the help of Loughran, Seth Cheatham, M.D.; current medical director of the VCU Health’s Sports Medicine Clinic, and Stephen Kates, M.D.; chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, the athletic training program has grown tremendously over the years.

A big part of what these athletic trainers do in schools is health education. Huss worked with Chesterfield County Public Schools to create a work-based learning opportunity for students, allowing them to do a semester-long work study or internship at their school’s athletic training room. The students learn the day-to-day responsibilities of athletic trainers and get hands-on experience with non-medical tasks.

“These students can be a huge help once they've learned appropriately and are given instructions to carry out different tasks, like documenting names of students coming into the athletic training room, getting another kid ice, making sure a kid knows what they’re heating or how they're stretching,” Huss said.

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Nicole Stevens, MS, MBA-HCM, ATC, the program manager for VCU Health’s Department of Sports Medicine, has been with the health system since 2012 (Kevin Morley, Enterprise Marketing and Communications).

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Sometimes, it can take days or weeks to get an appointment with a doctor after an injury. With the connection to VCU Health, this team of athletic trainers serves as a buffer for families. Stevens says their goal is to have injured athletes seen by a physician within 24 to 48 hours. Those without insurance are encouraged to use the health system’s financial screening process to see if financial assistance is available for them.

“When we talk about access to services, athletic trainers are key to getting athletes seen quickly by a physician whether they have insurance or not. ATs are often the first to evaluate an injury, provide treatment, and refer to a physician,” Stevens explained. “For those who do not have health insurance, outreach athletic trainers at the injured athlete’s respective school will also help with their rehabilitation and return to play process provided by the physician.”

“We specialize in this. We have master's degrees, we're board-certified and licensed health care professionals. We are not only able to hopefully prevent injuries, but also treat, diagnose, and do rehabilitation,” Huss said. “We can help these kids to get the best care that is deemed necessary [by their doctors after getting injured].”

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You build long-term relationships with these students. Even if they don’t go into health care, we were there for them.

 Nicole Stevens, MS, MBA-HCM, ATC, program manager for VCU Health’s Department of Sports Medicine

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Recognizing how difficult it is to juggle family emergencies that come up during the workday, Stevens says she and her team have helped families when they’re in need too.

“I was at a high school where a kid had a terrible knee injury and had surgery. His mom worked 2 or 3 jobs and couldn't get to him to his appointments,” she said. “Because they were seen by one of our team physicians, I was able to coordinate care around her busy schedule. Our outreach ATs and I do whatever we can to help coordinate appropriate medical care.”

As a combination of providing health care services for sports injuries and community outreach, VCU Health’s athletic training program is an integral part of these schools and communities. They see how they play a role in bridging gaps in accessing health care and uplifting students to their full potential.

“As an athletic trainer, you can work in high schools, colleges, with professional athletes, and in a military or clinical setting,” Stevens said. “I've had people go on and be athletic trainers and they reach out and say, “Hey, thanks for showing me this. Thanks for letting me shadow you. This is where I'm at now.” One former student reached out to let me know they saved a life running a half marathon and thanked me for their experience as a student athletic trainer.”

“You build long-term relationships with these students. Even if they don’t go into health care, we were there for them,” she added.