Guest Blogger: Katie Scott

     The SWATA Blog is glad to introduce this month's guest blogger, Katie Scott. Katie Scott serves as the National Athletic Trainers' Association Athletic Trainer in Residence. She has provided us with a look into her role at the NATA office. Thanks Katie!

     I was honored to be asked to write a blog post regarding my experience at the National Athletic Trainer’s Association office as the Athletic Trainer in Residence. The past 11 months has truly been a life-changing experience, professionally and personally. I wanted to use this opportunity to share with you my experience as well as share a little bit more about myself. 

     Prior to joining the NATA staff, my career was entirely spent in the Division 1 collegiate setting, mostly focused in the Midwest region. After graduating from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois and completion of an internship at ESPN in Orlando, Florida, I attended Michigan State University and earn my master’s degree from its CAATE accredited post-professional program. I chose to attend a post-professional program because I wanted to expand my clinical skill set beyond the basic training I received in my undergraduate education, specifically with manual therapy and holistic medicine. Following graduate school, I accepted a one-year post-graduate internship at Northwestern University. Though I felt prepared to excel as a full-time staff member following graduation, the opportunity to intern at Northwestern gave me an even smoother transition to practice. I experienced firsthand the expectations of a full-time staff member, including administrative skills, autonomous decision making and professional socialization.  From there, I went on to a mid-major Division 1 university, and while I appreciated my time there, I did not want to pass on the opportunity to come to NATA. 

     Two of the more frequent questions I’m asked while networking with members are: why did I transition from a traditional setting (collegiate/university) to the non-traditional setting of association management and what are my day-to-day activities?

     I saw coming to NATA as a unique opportunity in twofold. First, it expanded my opportunity to network with my peers on an international platform. This to me was priceless enough. Second, I was already seeking opportunities to give back to the profession, and saw coming to NATA as a way to be able to gain a high-level vision of all the different initiatives and programs already happening of which I could be a part. Little did I know I would find a niche between balancing my background as an athletic trainer and applying that to association management; but it truly has become a passion of mine and I enjoy exploring ways to combine the two worlds to bring the membership opportunities for growth and professional development.

     Being the sole athletic trainer in the office, I provide a day-to-day understanding of what ATs do. This includes viewpoints on current practices, medical terminology, value in initiatives and assessing potential value for future projects and member benefits. I also act as a liaison to other professional organizations through collaborative efforts toward topics such as youth safety, emergency management, mental health, medical coverage and safety in sport participation. This has been accomplished through meeting planning/attendance, authoring various articles and publications, guest lecturing, task force participation, website development and other program brainstorming. I’ve also had opportunities to be part of the legislative efforts advocating for the profession, and look forward to a successful Capitol Hill Day, held this June in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with NATA 2016– we have all 50 states represented this year and District Six has registered in high numbers. 

     Looking to the future, my goal is to continue to work on my current projects and ideas that will the membership. I’m also looking for opportunities to continue to practice traditionally as an athletic trainer. I think it is important to stay true to who we are as people of clinical service, so with that, if there is ever an opportunity for me to assist at your local event in the north Texas area, please let me know.

     If there is one thing I have observed during my time in this new district, it a strong commitment to serve at all levels, and the pride of being associated with District Six. I have enjoyed getting to know you during various events, and look forward to getting to meet even more of the membership.

     As always, if there is ever a question you may have about a specific topic, or would like to provide feedback (positive or negative) about your membership, please know I’m available. My email is katies@nata.org. I look forward to, hopefully, seeing you in Baltimore and at the SWATA meeting in July!

Sincerely,

Katie Scott, MS, ATC, LAT

Athletic Trainer in Residence - NATA

Guest Blogger: Michelle Vryhof Holt

The SWATA blog is excited to introduce Michelle Vryhof Holt as our most recent guest blogger. Michelle Vryhof Holt is the athletic trainer at Chisholm Trail High School. She is also the D6 NATAPAC Director. She gives us some great insight on transitioning from her role at NATA, as well as the importance of the NATAPAC. Thanks Michelle!

     It has been almost two years since leaving employment in the NATA office. I look back and can hardly believe what an amazing experience it was to pave the way in a new position that became so involved in key projects. I REALLY liked working at NATA and the decision to go back to work in “the trenches” was hard to make. During my time there I was deeply inspired by the SSATC and also empathized with their struggles in the secondary school. All the while, I didn’t feel I could be fully effective in working for this large population of athletic trainers until I had gone through it myself and stood in those shoes. So, I jumped in.

     The transition from full-time office back to full-time AT wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. After many late nights I definitely have missed the regular hours and flexibility. The hot topics like our value, quality of life, perception and support of ATs are all still as real as they are at NATA. However, the perspective I gained helps me do my best to stay positive for the future. The profession is much bigger than one person or group of ATs, but with the same breath there are also so many other ATs out there dealing with similar difficulties. We can’t forget that there are significant resources to help us, both in writing and through people. I am so impressed in what NATA is doing to create tools for us and to support us. I am confident there will be even more great things to come.

     Something else I keep in mind is sincere and grateful appreciation for staff and volunteers within our organization. Amazing things are accomplished because of incredible sacrifices of volunteers, in leadership and grassroots efforts alike. Having seen all of the intricate gears of the association turning from the inside, I can’t ever take for granted the hard work of all our many volunteers and what they help NATA produce.  In addition, we have an outstanding staff at NATA of more than 30 professionals who are contributing as experts in their own field for the operation of our association. They work so hard for us. Having worked with them and built relationships, I can strongly testify for our need to trust them. Our leaders and staff make the best decisions they can to help ATs and our profession.

     For me, this trust ties into giving back to the profession. We give a lot of ourselves in our jobs, but our association needs our support in contributing to the NATAPAC and The Foundation. Donating hard earned money is a leap of faith because you don’t necessarily “see it” once you give or witness the effects of your gifts immediately. But, this act of good will is necessary to keep us moving forward and we have to trust our leadership to do the right thing with our investments. It is hard to ask ATs to give more than they already do, but even a little bit from every member goes a long way.

     I am so thankful for the all the ATs that are willing to continue going above and beyond. I hope you all are able to carry on the good work and “keep the faith.”

Sincerely,

Michelle Vryhof Holt, MA, ATC, LAT

D6 NATAPAC Director

Chisholm Trail High School

Resolutions for the Professional and the Profession

This time of year is always exciting for me.  Not only because the holidays typically bring some amount of time for rest and recovery, although this is certainly a nice perk, but because as the year came to a close there was a time of reflection and looking forward to the future.  Now that the new year has arrived, so have the new year resolutions! The ever famous, I’m going to get into shape this year, lose some weight, by the way I’ve never done well with that one.  The other day however, I had a thought, this year I will make resolutions that will help me professionally and personally.  

As I began to think about this more, I came up with many different ways that I can put this plan to work for me.  Ultimately I want to make resolutions that will help me to improve as a professional and hopefully advance the profession as a whole.  Communication is an area that I feel I am pretty good at, but at the same time, this is an area that I feel can always be better.  Communication is important in so many different ways.  It is important to communicate with co-workers, patients, parents, coaches, other ATs, regardless of your work setting the list can go on and on.  I personally want to improve communication with my co-worker in the athletic training room.  I feel that this can be a huge step toward improving communication across the spectrum.  We already communicate well, but how can we improve on that? For others, maybe it is communication with coaches that could improve, or maybe it is communication with parents.  Regardless, something that I think could be extremely helpful is communicating with seasoned athletic trainers, previous mentors or those who work around you.  There is a great deal to be learned from the past.  Often times we get so caught up in the way things are that we lose sight of where we came from.  Not that change is bad or that new ways of doing things don’t work, but maybe some advice from a colleague who has experienced what you are dealing with could be helpful.

Another area that I thought of is promoting ATs and the profession as a whole.  We all benefit from these efforts, whether it is on the local, state, district or national level.  Something as simple as providing a talk over health and safety to a local little league program, hosting a session on workplace safety, or going to Washington DC for Capitol Hill Day these efforts advance the profession and the professional.  As I was going over this it came to mind that this year I have to renew my application to be recognized as a Safe Sports School.  For those of you who received this recognition the first year, don’t forget to renew in 2016.  This is something that everyone in the secondary school setting can do and the best part is, it promotes you and what you do to ensure the safety of your student-athletes, it promotes your school and the support they provide to you, and it promotes the profession and ATs as leaders in the field of athletic health care.  To find out more about how your campus can become a Safe Sports School, click here.

What better way to give back to the profession of athletic training in this new year than to resolve to make yourself and the profession as a whole better? Regardless of your work setting, resolve to become the best you can be.  It all starts with you, you are the face of athletic training in your community, make us proud.  

Do have some resolutions that you think could impact the profession as whole or you as a professional? Leave them in the comments below.

Josh Woodall; M.Ed., ATC, LAT

SWATA President