Nearly 450,000 students play college sports each year. But there are fewer than 3,500 allied health-care providers on hand daily to provide for their safety. That's one allied health-care provider for every 138 collegiate athletes.
Now there are new guidelines, established by the National Athletic Trainers' Association, that will help colleges and universities in estimating the minimum amount of medical care needed at each institution to help keep players safe. They take into account the number and type of sports offered, the injury risks associated with each sport and the workload of the health-care personnel on duty.
More than two years in the making, the NATA guidelines are based on exhaustive research that began after studies illustrated an explosive growth in college athletics, according to Denny Miller, head athletic trainer at Purdue University and chair of the task force that developed the guidelines.
He notes that over the past generation, college athletes are getting bigger, stronger and more physical — which leads to a greater risk of injury.
The guidelines also protect institutions in today's litigious climate, says Dale Rudd, an athletic trainer at Stanford University.
"By using this tool to evaluate their situation, universities will have a better sense of their athletic health care needs," Rudd says. "This, in turn, will help them avoid the repercussions of poor health care like athletes going unrehabilitated or slipping through the cracks — or worse yet, an injury occurring when no qualified person is available to provide care."
To receive a copy of the guidelines or for more information, visit NATA's Web site (www.nata.org) or contact Ashley Dixon Burns at (241) 637-6282, Ext. 154.

The chancellors of the California State University
and the California Community Colleges systems have signed a memorandum of understanding between the two systems that will make it easier for students to transfer from the CCC system to the CSU system.
The agreement outlines collaborative and comprehensive efforts to increase by 5 percent annually the number of students who are eligible to transfer from community colleges.
The CSU system annually enrolls about 50,000 new transfer students from California community colleges, or more than 75 percent of all the transfer students in the state. Under the California Education Code, CSU's top admissions priority is to transfer students from the state's community colleges. In fact, two-thirds of all incoming CSU students are transfer students.
For more information, contact CSU representative Ken Swisher at (562) 951-4806, or via e-mail (kswisher@calstate.edu). Kyle Orr at the CCC can be reached at (916) 327-5025, or via e-mail at (korr@cccco.edu).