The athletic trainers at Bluffton University must be well informed of legal and ethical issues that can arise with injured athletes or they can risk losing their jobs.
As both the certified athletic trainers and student trainers deal with medical records of the athletes, they must know what information can and cannot be discussed. A lot of information concerning an athlete’s medical history is listed on the medical forms and the physicals the athletes are required to turn in. The trainers are not legally allowed to discuss these matters with anyone who is not involve with the treatment of the athlete.
The athletic trainers are bound to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws meaning that they cannot release medical information to anyone other than the injured athlete. “There have been times that parents have come up to me and asked about their child’s injuries and treatment and I have had to either send them to Tyler or Kim (the certified athletic trainers) because I cannot personally inform them of anything due to the HIPAA laws,” said Ashley Corney, senior head athletic trainer for the year 2009.
While discussing an athlete’s injury and treatment is illegal, the trainers know that talking about the happenings in the training room is unethical. Discussing struggles, concerns, or even simply a conversation that takes place in the training room is seriously frowned upon. The training room has a sign hanging up that says “What happens here, said here, saw here, stays here” to remind that trainers of this ethical code.
“Even though we trainers are a tight-knit group, we aren’t allowed to discuss an athlete’s personal medical details with one another. We know doing so is not only illegal, but unethical because we wouldn’t want our personal problems talked about either,” said Corney.
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