Kinesiology Faculty Awarded Far West Athletic Trainers Association Grants
The Far West Athletic Trainers Association (FWATA) recently awarded Tricia Kasamatsu and Melissa Montgomery, assistant professors of kinesiology, grants of $2,165 and $3,000, respectively.
Kasamatsu’s research involves interviewing athletic trainers employed in secondary schools to understand their perspectives toward patient care documentation, factors that influence these behaviors, and strategies they believe will enhance their patient care documentation. “As allied health care professionals, athletic trainers use patient care documentation to capture patient status, record services provided and track patient progress,” she says. “Lack of routine patient care documentation poses legal risks, limits the ability to characterize athletic training services provided and affects clinical decision-making based upon patient progress.” Her “Athletic trainers paper versus electronic documentation behaviors: Implications for elevating patient care and professional recognition” project will be used to transcribe data and support her presentation, based on her findings, at a professional conference.
Melissa Montgomery
“Recovery from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after intense exercise is a priority for athletes and sports medicine practitioners,” explains Montgomery. “Yet, an effective solution eludes us, despite a wide range of commonly-used interventions and commercial products available. One such modality that has become recently popular is pulsed dynamic compression, which purportedly mimics the pumping action of the muscles, aiding in removing metabolites and enhancing blood flow. While products using this technology have had commercial success as a recovery aid, there is limited research examining whether it actually aids in recovery from pain, dysfunction or performance.” Her project, “The effect of pulsed dynamic compression on subjective and objective measures of recovery following intense exercise,” will examine the efficacy of pulsed dynamic compression in reducing pain and aiding in recovery of performance outcomes. “Our goal for this work is to use the knowledge gained from this study to help clinicians make an evidence-based decision for a common clinical problem.” Co-investigator Randy Harris, a certified athletic trainer and currently in the kinesiology master’s program, proposed the project as an undergraduate student.
