With the region's largest certified athletic training staff, we provide outreach athletic training services to numerous schools. Our certified athletic trainers are specially trained in the prevention, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of all types of sports-related or physically active injuries and illnesses. Prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programs are developed based on medical, exercise, and sports sciences.
In this segment Robert Ullery, Athletic Trainer, discusses UK HealthCare athletic training contracts and outreach opportunities through out the state of Kentucky.
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Athletic Training: Contracts and Outreach Opportunities in Kentucky
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Learn more about Robert Ullery, Athletic trainer
Robert Ullery, Athletic trainer
Robert Ullery is an Orthopaedic Surgeon & Sports Medicine specialist.Learn more about Robert Ullery, Athletic trainer
Transcription:
Melanie Cole (Host): With the region’s largest certified athletic training staff, UK Healthcare provides outreach athletic training services to numerous schools throughout Kentucky both high school and college. My guest today is Robert Ullery. He’s an athletic trainer with UK Healthcare. Welcome to the show. What is an athletic trainer? What do you do?
Robert Ullery, Athletic Trainer (Guest): Thank you for asking me to be a part of this. Athletic trainers are nationally certified healthcare providers. We provide evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation, emergency care for injured individuals that participate in sporting events.
Melanie: How can schools and student benefit from your expertise? Speak a little bit about how you're trained in prevention and assessment treatment, what is it you really do with people.
Robert: Schools can require athletic training services in numerous ways. We are one avenue to provide those athletic training services to those schools. What it does is it really takes a lot of pressure off of the coaches and give the parents a piece of mind that someone is there strictly for the medical care for their children. It looks after their well-being. I’d like to say that we’re lifeguards without water. We provide injury evaluation, we provide rehab, we provide injury prevention techniques and we do things that allow those student athletes to succeed at the highest level.
Melanie: One of the things we hear in the media and it’s being talked about a lot is concussion. Are you someone that is there on the field during a game that can help with concussion recognition and teaching the kids about recognizing symptoms in one of their buddies on the field?
Robert: Definitely. That is a national concern now. Like I said, it takes a lot of pressure off of coaches and other individuals that are on that sideline to evaluate. We’re especially trained in concussion evaluation to determine concussion symptoms and to determine when an athlete can and cannot return to the field. With the news of athletes sustaining concussions and sustaining second impact syndrome and unfortunately passing away from concussion like symptoms or having long term effects from concussion symptoms, these are the biggest concerns now for the school systems and for other athletic events.
Melanie: Even with recognizing if someone had just simply pulled a muscle or needs to come off and ice for a little while, it does really take the pressure off the coaches and puts the parents’ minds at ease that are in the stands watching all of this happen, I certainly agree with you. Speak about UK Healthcare’s presence and impact throughout Kentucky. What schools do you work with?
Robert: We have grown and grown throughout the years. We’ve been fortunate to work with the Fayette County schools since 1996, so we take care of all six Fayette County schools, we take care of Woodford County High School, some of our new high schools that we have acquired this past year is Frankfort Independent High School, Pulaski County High School and Southwestern High School. We provide full time coverage to those schools. Like I said, it takes a lot of the pressure off the administration, the coaches and such. We also provide what we call part time coverage to a lot of the rural schools in Kentucky. Those include Gallatin County High School Owen County High School, Nicholas County High School, Bath County High School, Rockcastle County High School, Lincoln County High School, Berea Community High School and Jackson County High School. We also provide coverage to Richmond Model High School in Richmond, Kentucky as well. Our breadth is pretty wise and the socioeconomic impact on a lot of these schools we take into account to take care of all kids.
Melanie: Before we talk about some of the state events that you provide your services for, what do the students think? Are they really psyched that they have an athletic trainer that can help them to succeed and even excel in the sports that they're playing?
Robert: It’s ironic you ask that because we've had the contract with Fayette County for 21 years now and it’s second nature to those kids that as soon as they get hurt, they automatically go to the athletic trainer and they look at that athletic trainer as that healthcare provider to help them with all their bumps and bruises and such. Some of our newer schools, it’s still trying to dip their toe in the water and really figure out what that person is on the sideline and what they're there for, and that’s just a learning curve for a lot of these student athletes and coaches, to establish what the responsibility of that athletic trainer is in some of these newer high school.
Melanie: I think it’s a great point that you make, that while it might see intimidating to students to see one of you guys on the sideline, really it should make them more confident and use you as somebody to confide in when they go feel some of these injuries because athletes don’t always want to admit to them because they sometimes feel like they're going to be taken off the field.
Robert: Exactly. That’s the biggest fear, that they're afraid by talking to someone that they're automatically going to get taken off the field. That’s not our role and not our goal to take them off the field. We have a tagline here at UK Sports Medicine that “we get you back in the game,” and we firmly believe in that tagline. We want to see our student athletes succeed in every event and we’re not there to be the grim reaper or the specter to pull these kids out if we feel like medically they can continue playing.
Melanie: What about some state events that you attend and help with your services?
Robert: Last year, we contracted with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association and became partners with them to provide athletic training coverage to different state events that are occur in the central Kentucky area. Right now, we’re providing medical coverage to state cross country, state soccer, state football, state cheerleading competition, this year they’ve added dance, state archery, state baseball, men’s sweet-16 basketball at Rupp arena is a huge event, state wrestling at the Kentucky Horse Park is another huge event that we provide coverage for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association in the state event.
Melanie: That’s fantastic. Let’s just start with soccer for a minute. ACL injuries in girls are a huge problem right now. You mentioned at the beginning with teaching some prevention techniques like plyometrics or helping them so that maybe they don’t sustain these injuries.
Robert: Definitely. Our athletic trainers are in tune with the most recent research on ACL preventative techniques and coach the coaches on changing their practice patterns and changing the way that they do things. I think that most coaches have really bought into that because if you have an athlete tear their ACL, they're done for 9-10 months, and that doesn’t even talk about the economic impact that it has on the family, or the educational impact it has on that student athlete. I think coaches are in tune now to change the way they do things pre-practice wise or do things that will increase the chance of not sustaining an ACL injury in particular.
Melanie: What about some of the other events that you help service – the educational events, lectures, community seminars health fairs?
Robert: We do. We’re always available to conduct health fairs, we’re available for career fairs. We go throughout the central Kentucky area providing those sorts of services. We’re fortunate that we work with some great physicians and have physician support to go to parent meetings at club soccer teams. We go to parent meetings at different sports and provide educational material. We talk different sports that are specific to that sport educationally to help prevent these young men and women from sustaining injuries.
Melanie: Wrap it up for us with your best advice about athletic training, services in the Kentucky area, what you can offer from UK Healthcare.
Robert: I think we offer the total package of well-seasoned and well supported athletic trainers. We’re very fortunate at UK to have a great physician base that are sport medicine fellowship trained to support the athletic trainers and recognize that in the sports medicine world, parents and coaches want answers yesterday. Like I said, we’re very fortunate to have those physicians that recognize that to diagnose injuries and to communicate with the athletic trainers and communicate with the coaches and parents what is best for their student athletes.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us. What a wonderful program that you're offering to the schools and state events around Kentucky. This is UK Healthcast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. For more information, you can go to ukhealthcare.uky.edu. That’s ukhealthcare.uky.edu. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Melanie Cole (Host): With the region’s largest certified athletic training staff, UK Healthcare provides outreach athletic training services to numerous schools throughout Kentucky both high school and college. My guest today is Robert Ullery. He’s an athletic trainer with UK Healthcare. Welcome to the show. What is an athletic trainer? What do you do?
Robert Ullery, Athletic Trainer (Guest): Thank you for asking me to be a part of this. Athletic trainers are nationally certified healthcare providers. We provide evaluation, treatment, rehabilitation, emergency care for injured individuals that participate in sporting events.
Melanie: How can schools and student benefit from your expertise? Speak a little bit about how you're trained in prevention and assessment treatment, what is it you really do with people.
Robert: Schools can require athletic training services in numerous ways. We are one avenue to provide those athletic training services to those schools. What it does is it really takes a lot of pressure off of the coaches and give the parents a piece of mind that someone is there strictly for the medical care for their children. It looks after their well-being. I’d like to say that we’re lifeguards without water. We provide injury evaluation, we provide rehab, we provide injury prevention techniques and we do things that allow those student athletes to succeed at the highest level.
Melanie: One of the things we hear in the media and it’s being talked about a lot is concussion. Are you someone that is there on the field during a game that can help with concussion recognition and teaching the kids about recognizing symptoms in one of their buddies on the field?
Robert: Definitely. That is a national concern now. Like I said, it takes a lot of pressure off of coaches and other individuals that are on that sideline to evaluate. We’re especially trained in concussion evaluation to determine concussion symptoms and to determine when an athlete can and cannot return to the field. With the news of athletes sustaining concussions and sustaining second impact syndrome and unfortunately passing away from concussion like symptoms or having long term effects from concussion symptoms, these are the biggest concerns now for the school systems and for other athletic events.
Melanie: Even with recognizing if someone had just simply pulled a muscle or needs to come off and ice for a little while, it does really take the pressure off the coaches and puts the parents’ minds at ease that are in the stands watching all of this happen, I certainly agree with you. Speak about UK Healthcare’s presence and impact throughout Kentucky. What schools do you work with?
Robert: We have grown and grown throughout the years. We’ve been fortunate to work with the Fayette County schools since 1996, so we take care of all six Fayette County schools, we take care of Woodford County High School, some of our new high schools that we have acquired this past year is Frankfort Independent High School, Pulaski County High School and Southwestern High School. We provide full time coverage to those schools. Like I said, it takes a lot of the pressure off the administration, the coaches and such. We also provide what we call part time coverage to a lot of the rural schools in Kentucky. Those include Gallatin County High School Owen County High School, Nicholas County High School, Bath County High School, Rockcastle County High School, Lincoln County High School, Berea Community High School and Jackson County High School. We also provide coverage to Richmond Model High School in Richmond, Kentucky as well. Our breadth is pretty wise and the socioeconomic impact on a lot of these schools we take into account to take care of all kids.
Melanie: Before we talk about some of the state events that you provide your services for, what do the students think? Are they really psyched that they have an athletic trainer that can help them to succeed and even excel in the sports that they're playing?
Robert: It’s ironic you ask that because we've had the contract with Fayette County for 21 years now and it’s second nature to those kids that as soon as they get hurt, they automatically go to the athletic trainer and they look at that athletic trainer as that healthcare provider to help them with all their bumps and bruises and such. Some of our newer schools, it’s still trying to dip their toe in the water and really figure out what that person is on the sideline and what they're there for, and that’s just a learning curve for a lot of these student athletes and coaches, to establish what the responsibility of that athletic trainer is in some of these newer high school.
Melanie: I think it’s a great point that you make, that while it might see intimidating to students to see one of you guys on the sideline, really it should make them more confident and use you as somebody to confide in when they go feel some of these injuries because athletes don’t always want to admit to them because they sometimes feel like they're going to be taken off the field.
Robert: Exactly. That’s the biggest fear, that they're afraid by talking to someone that they're automatically going to get taken off the field. That’s not our role and not our goal to take them off the field. We have a tagline here at UK Sports Medicine that “we get you back in the game,” and we firmly believe in that tagline. We want to see our student athletes succeed in every event and we’re not there to be the grim reaper or the specter to pull these kids out if we feel like medically they can continue playing.
Melanie: What about some state events that you attend and help with your services?
Robert: Last year, we contracted with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association and became partners with them to provide athletic training coverage to different state events that are occur in the central Kentucky area. Right now, we’re providing medical coverage to state cross country, state soccer, state football, state cheerleading competition, this year they’ve added dance, state archery, state baseball, men’s sweet-16 basketball at Rupp arena is a huge event, state wrestling at the Kentucky Horse Park is another huge event that we provide coverage for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association in the state event.
Melanie: That’s fantastic. Let’s just start with soccer for a minute. ACL injuries in girls are a huge problem right now. You mentioned at the beginning with teaching some prevention techniques like plyometrics or helping them so that maybe they don’t sustain these injuries.
Robert: Definitely. Our athletic trainers are in tune with the most recent research on ACL preventative techniques and coach the coaches on changing their practice patterns and changing the way that they do things. I think that most coaches have really bought into that because if you have an athlete tear their ACL, they're done for 9-10 months, and that doesn’t even talk about the economic impact that it has on the family, or the educational impact it has on that student athlete. I think coaches are in tune now to change the way they do things pre-practice wise or do things that will increase the chance of not sustaining an ACL injury in particular.
Melanie: What about some of the other events that you help service – the educational events, lectures, community seminars health fairs?
Robert: We do. We’re always available to conduct health fairs, we’re available for career fairs. We go throughout the central Kentucky area providing those sorts of services. We’re fortunate that we work with some great physicians and have physician support to go to parent meetings at club soccer teams. We go to parent meetings at different sports and provide educational material. We talk different sports that are specific to that sport educationally to help prevent these young men and women from sustaining injuries.
Melanie: Wrap it up for us with your best advice about athletic training, services in the Kentucky area, what you can offer from UK Healthcare.
Robert: I think we offer the total package of well-seasoned and well supported athletic trainers. We’re very fortunate at UK to have a great physician base that are sport medicine fellowship trained to support the athletic trainers and recognize that in the sports medicine world, parents and coaches want answers yesterday. Like I said, we’re very fortunate to have those physicians that recognize that to diagnose injuries and to communicate with the athletic trainers and communicate with the coaches and parents what is best for their student athletes.
Melanie: Thank you so much for being with us. What a wonderful program that you're offering to the schools and state events around Kentucky. This is UK Healthcast with the University of Kentucky Healthcare. For more information, you can go to ukhealthcare.uky.edu. That’s ukhealthcare.uky.edu. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.