User:Julieblewis/sandbox

While their care focuses on the physical issues and how to go about them, athletic trainers also focus on the psychosocial response’s athletes have to injuries and recovery outcomes. Due to athletic trainers being the first responder on a scene of an athletic injury, they are relied on to handle emotional distress associated with the injury along with the injury itself. Athletes have perceived athletic trainers to provide better psychosocial support over coaches and or teammates during this time. The support given by trainers has been found to enhance the confidence, well-being, and injury recovery. Researchers define the support as empathic. When an athlete is injured, an athletic trainer is key to what happens next. Because they are important in the road to recovery, the trainer and athlete spend a significant amount of time together going through rehabilitation. As like any injury, comes the emotional distress and let down. This can impact the recovery process and possibly the future of an athlete’s athletic career. The challenges faced psychosocially may not always be apparent but do need attention called to it. Scholars have noted that social isolation, poor rehabilitation and low motivation can come with injuries and mess with the return to normal health. By providing empathy, AT’s can help maneuver this mindset to a motivational one that gets the athlete to push through. The factors of empathy related to athletic training are established as themes of advocacy, communication, approachability, access, and competence. These themes were found by J Sport Rehabilitation, whom researched the athletes’ perception of athletic trainer empathy and how important it is. Providing these 5 themes help to advance the patient-trainer relationship, which is critical to enable the best treatment outcomes. It is important that this relationship is built to build trust between the two. With this trust, an athlete can believe in themselves and create a self-determination by the strength shown by the trainer. Not only does it create a self-determination, but it helps the athlete to begin to focus outside the problem and trust in the support of others around them and themselves. The job as a AT is emotionally demanding since it is very emotionally straining for the athlete, but the trainer goes through it with them and ends up in the same strain. Through the emotional stress, the athlete will come to accept what has happen and it is because of the trainer that they do so. The trainer should soften their tone, listen attentively, and increase self-awareness to show the athlete they are there to get them to their best selves and show the positivity in what will come. By this, the athlete is guaranteed a better outcome and a faster recovery. It is a main concept in sports medicine to do what is best for the athlete and providing this care is essential since most athletes tend to give up when an event happens that causes them to be unable to do what they used to.