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Who To Contact About An Injury

Who To Contact About An Injury

Sometimes your student-athlete may return home from a practice or game and then begin to feel discomfort, pain or soreness associated with a sports injury. They may just not “feel right”. Injuries do happen in sports and it is important to identify these early aches and pains so that your athlete can begin the healing process as soon as possible.

Sports injuries need to be evaluated by a medical professional who is familiar with the demands of sports and also familiar with return to participation procedures and policies that are in place.

Students should only return to physical activities, like sports or gym class, when they have completely recovered and have been medically cleared to resume competition.

Important Steps

If you suspect a life threatening situation (trouble breathing, altered consciousness, worsening headache or anything that otherwise makes you concerned) call your family health care provider, 911 or seek emergency room treatment.

For most sports injuries (non-life threatening) you should contact your child’s school-based certified athletic trainer.   A certified athletic trainer is a licensed health care provider who is specially trained in the prevention, recognition and care of sports-related injuries.  Contact information is provided on this website for school athletic trainers in the north Florida region.

Baseball Player Getting Ready to Hit Ball

Follow the certified athletic trainer’s instructions regarding care and management of the injury.  Sometimes recovery takes a few days, your student should continue to follow up with the athletic trainer each day for updated instructions.  The athletic trainer is available to answer questions from parents/guardians.  Be sure to reach out to the athletic trainer if you have any questions or concerns.

 

If your child was taken to the emergency room, urgent care center, physician office or other health care provider for this condition, please be sure to request a written note from this provider to return to the school athletic trainer for proper documentation of injury.  Remember, school Board policy always requires a written note from a physician prior to return to play for sports injuries.

 

Contact information for the Athletic trainers and Team Physicians associated with our area schools is listed within our searchable database.  Simply type in your child’s school name to see a list of the providers associated with their school.

Most health care providers assisting within our schools are volunteers and help our school programs as a community service. There is no obligation or requirement to utilize these providers for clinical services.  As the primary contact of the schools sports medicine services, these team physicians do have the responsibly to review all paperwork from outside clinicians and to offer FINAL approval on ALL return to play decisions as a safety precaution.

You can review some common sports injury treatment protocols and policies by visiting the school website and looking for the sports medicine page.

This page generally provides important contact information for the athletic trainer and the volunteer physician for the school.

In most cases, in the event of injury, your student will be referred to your personal family health care provider.  The role of the team physician is to provide medical oversight to the athletic trainer, the athletic training program and to collaborate with the personal physician on return to competition when an injury occurs.

Duval County Public Schools: Athletic Training Programs

The link below will connect you with the DCPS Athletics webpage that has information on all District athletic training programs and contact information for the school-based athletic trainer.