Announcement: Taping Course
Norton County Hospital Rehabilitation offers taping course for school coaches
November 2018
A course for junior high and high school coaches was provided at Norton County Hospital in November in hopes to help educate them on the correct principles of taping both with athletic tape and with Kinesiotape. Jodi Roe, an athletic trainer, provided instruction in addition to Kellen Jacobs, Rehabilitation department supervisor and physical therapist, who said the main goal was to provide knowledge to coaches who don’t necessarily get this education as part of their educator training. Roe and Jacobs are not always available to assist with all athletes' needs, especially at away games or weekend tournaments.
In addition to the coaches, other hospital staff members took the educational course to gain continuing education credit hours. Jacobs has been twice certified as a Certified Kinesiotaping Practitioner with two different educational companies. This course is a way to have much better continuity among providers in the department, as well as to allow an opportunity for coaches to get to know the hospital staff members who take care of their athletes.
Dr. Greg Sarin, orthopedic specialist, also spoke to his experience with sports medicine and surgery in general. He spoke to his availability in the region and how effectively it works when an athlete can come to Jacobs or Roe right away with his or her needs. This local availability is beneficial to the athlete and his or her parents, because it reduces missed school time and drive time to appointments. The athletes typically can be seen within the week and could have surgery, if needed, within two weeks. If athletes are treated more conservatively, staff at the hospital can also get all of the diagnostic tests done prior to Dr. Sarin even seeing the patient in many situations, further reducing wait times. This allows for effective and efficient treatment for these athletes and anyone else who needs it. It is rare that all who attended this course would have the opportunity and time to discuss management and care of athletes with a highly skilled surgeon like Dr. Sarin without themselves making an appointment with him. This educational environment provided for that rare experience.
Other specific objectives of the course included:
1. Participants will be able to correctly cut and apply Kinesiotape.
2. Participants will be able to correctly demonstrate basic ankle and thumb taping with athletic tape.
3. Participants will demonstrate correct removal of tape.
4. Participants will apply the principles to tape for edema anywhere on the body.
5. Participants will be able to correctly position athletes for proper taping.
6. Participants will be able to verbalize all precautions for taping.
Jacobs said the environment was laid back, but all who were in attendance were very engaged. It was a lab-type setting with lots of hands-on practice available. Attendees all practiced taping on each other during the two-hour course.
The Rehabilitation department would like to thank Norton County Hospital CEO Gina Frack for stopping by and for purchasing the Kinesiotape that was used. Also special thanks to the Dietary department and the Rehabilitation department for the snacks. Most importantly, special thank you to all of the coaches who attended. This night was a great collaboration for Norton athletics. All athletes will likely benefit from this educational experience.
