USF Health has agreed to provide Certified Athletic Trainers  to Hillsborough County Schools through its SMART Institute, a comprehensive sports safety program in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

The School Board voted Aug. 20 to allocate $270,000 to place Certified Athletic Trainers (ATs) at all high schools in the county year-round who will be on-site for all practices, training sessions and games.

In partnership with the School District, USF Health is among several programs providing the certified ATs, who will staff all 27 high schools in Hillsborough County. In total, USF Health is providing 11 ATs to the District, who will report to the Department Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“USF Health and our SMART Institute are thrilled to be a part of this plan to help support Certified Athletic Trainers  at Hillsborough County Schools,” said Renee Dubault, Chief Operating Officer and Associate Executive Director of Business Operations for USF Health. “We felt that, if the schools are going to have coverage, it is important they have full-time coverage.”

High school athletes in Hillsborough County Schools will have Certified Athletic Trainers on the field. 

In the approved plan, the District is spending $10,000 -$270,000 per high school – and three organizations are providing the additional funding that will pay for the 27 ATs. In addition to USF Health, Select Physical Therapy, and PT Solutions Holdings, LLC, are supporting the AT effort for Hillsborough County Schools.

USF Health’s SMART (Sports Medicine & Athletic Related Trauma) Institute  is a sports safety program that uses a multidisciplinary approach with a team of professionals through the use of education, research, and injury care and prevention thereby elevating the standard of care for the youth, recreational, high school, collegiate and professional athlete. In addition to providing ATs to local schools, the program provides on-site coverage for community events, ranging from Florida High School Athletic Association State Tournaments to non-profit fund-raising sporting events. SMART personnel also educate coaches, parents and student athletes in the community on key injury prevention advice on topics such as concussions, heat illness, lightning safety, and sports training programs designed to minimize the incident and severity of injuries.

“Athletic trainers are critical to athlete safety”, said Jen Farrant, MSEd, ATC, administrator in the Department Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in MCOM.

“Athletic trainers offer student-athletes of all ages a safe and successful environment,” said Farrant, who is an athletic trainer. “ATs are often the first to recognize when there is an emergency happening, even a life-threatening situation. If there’s a medical situation, the AT is the first responder. That’s what parents want and that’s what coaches want on their sidelines – someone with the training to handle that responsibility.”

Article by Sarah Worth, USF Health

Like students in most schools, a group of elementary students in East Tampa started classes last month excited about the year ahead.

But this group is a little different. Uniforms are scrubs. Guest speakers are doctors, nurses, and the like. And field trips will be to area laboratories and maybe hospitals.

This group is the inaugural class for the King’s Kids Academy of Health Sciences, a new charter school putting an emphasis on health sciences and aiming to build a pipeline for healthcare professionals who will help ease the shortage of healthcare providers, especially minority professionals.

King’s Kids Academy of Health Sciences (KKAHS) earned approval to open from the School Board of Hillsborough County earlier this year. The school is targeting underserved low-income school-age students of the East Tampa area.

In designing its extensive curriculum that includes modules for learning about health and sciences and inspiring students to consider health careers, KKAHS has connected with many community health groups, including USF Health. Lennox Hoyte, MD, associate professor in USF’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Morsani College of Medicine, is acting as a mentor to the program, and sees the school as a good way to help ease the shortage in healthcare providers.

“It is important for these young kids to see a pathway for becoming healthcare professionals,” Dr. Hoyte said. “And starting early – demonstrating, as well as experiencing, aspects of health careers – is an ideal model for keeping that pathway open.  There is a dramatic shortage of healthcare professionals, especially minority healthcare professionals. So a curriculum like this can provide a high payoff for the community, the region, and the state, as well as the individual.”

In addition to Dr. Hoyte, pre-med students, medical students and faculty can be mentors and /or tutors, plugging into the school as guest speakers, helping on career days, offering support for various science and health projects, etc. As the school grows (it is starting with kindergarten, first and second grades only), the partnership has the potential to expand, as well.

Dr. Lennox Hoyte

“We are very excited to connect with USF Health and see USF students come in and work with our children,” said Maria Stroud, director of KKAHS.  “It is so important to have them there to instill in our kindergartners, first-, second- and third-graders the message that they can define who they will be, even at this young age, and say to them ‘hey, you can start building on this now.’ That’s a magnificent message.”

Also helping bridge the charter school with USF is Hiram Green, director of Community Engagement, who serves on the KKAHS board of directors.

Hiram Green

“As we work to transform healthcare, it is important for us to connect with our various communities and to use our intellectual capital to make them better,” Green said. “A school such as this could help implement a reversal of debilitating conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, infant mortality, and other chronic diseases that continue to plague our community. Starting with these children, we have an opportunity to put in their minds early, the necessity for good nutrition and the knowledge of science, things they will need in the future, whether they go into healthcare fields or not. Just for the betterment of themselves.”

For more information about the free, public school, and to enroll your child (KKAHS is still accepting students), visit King’s Kids Academy of Health Sciences web site.

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications