Continuing education opportunities offered through streaming video are widely available for various healthcare professions including nursing, physicians, etc. For athletic trainers, however, there are no organizations in the United States that deliver wide-scale continuing education opportunities via video-streaming. Thus, attaining the minimal continuing education requirements to maintain board certified/licensed credentials usually requires athletic trainers to travel out of state, an unnecessary and time consuming expense.

“Using streaming video allows the educational programs to come to the user versus the user traveling to the program,” said Ray Castle, a Certified Athletic Trainer and serving as Co-Principal Investigator of the grant. 

Melissa Thompson, also a Certified Athletic Trainer and serving as Co-Principal Investigator on the grant, added that the videos will be used for more than just continuing education, “Through streaming video we can create educational programs directed to all sports healthcare populations with a focus on injury prevention and methods to improve the overall quality of physical fitness for the residents of Louisiana.”

In addition to providing more economically efficient opportunities for continuing education, the development of readily available online educational resources for athletic training students will help ensure that these future healthcare providers are highly skilled and competitive in today’s healthcare workforce.  A highly educated healthcare workforce will in turn translate to more effective healthcare delivery to both rural and metropolitan populations of Louisiana.

As an “Approved Provider” of athletic training continuing education courses through the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Board of Certification, Inc, the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology requested funds from the Louisiana Board of Regents to implement a “sports healthcare network.” This network will offer collaborative education opportunities for athletic training students, healthcare providers, and the general public of Louisiana through a Web-based information portal, streaming videos for continuing education credits, and the development of future continuing education programs.

In collaboration with Nicholls State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Louisiana College, the Department of Kinesiology will offer in-depth instruction with the ability to assess students’ completion and understanding of the content matter through pre-test and post-test components administered on the Web site.

The streaming video project will serve adolescent, high school, recreational, adult, and many other sports healthcare populations.  Dr. Castle and Dr. Thompson are currently collecting additional material for posting on the network as well as working with LSU graduate students in compiling additional content.

Visit http://sped1.ednet.lsu.edu/healthcare/default.aspx for updates on the progress of the network or how you can participate or contribute to its success.