North Carolina high school football first responders' perceived knowledge and their likelihood to perform athletic health care behaviors

A great deal of scrutiny had been placed on the current level of on-site health care provided at North Carolina public high schools, in particular care given by first responders working with football. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify North Carolina high school football first responders' perceived knowledge of a variety of athletic health care skills and behaviors, and (b) determine the likelihood that first responders would actually perform specific skills and behaviors when provided the opportunity to do so during the football season. The author also investigated if differences existed between those with four or more years of experience and those with three or less years of experience. An original survey instrument was designed and pilot tested to assess perceived knowledge and likelihood of behaviors. The questionnaire was administered to first responders attending the first day of the summer 2009 Injury Management Workshop (IMW) in Greensboro, North Carolina which yielded a sample of N = 93. For ease of analysis data regarding perceived knowledge and the likelihood of skills and behaviors were reduced into five content areas: (a) upper extremity; (b) lower extremity; (c) head, neck, cervical spine and low back; (d) general medical/internal; and (e) environmental conditions. Separate multivariate analyses (MANOVA) were conducted to examine perceived knowledge and the likelihood to perform behaviors in first responders with four or more years of experience ( n = 32) and those with three or less years of experience ( n = 61). A bivariate correlation was conducted to determine the relationship between perceived knowledge and the likelihood to perform athletic health care behaviors. An alpha level of .05 was set to determine significance.;Results indicated that first responders perceived themselves to have enough knowledge in all content areas except head, neck, cervical spine, and low back content area (M = 1.47, SD = .29). There was no significant difference for perceived knowledge between groups regarding years of experience (p = .136). First responders were likely to perform athletic health care skills and behaviors in all content areas when given the opportunity to do. There was a significant difference between the groups (Wilks lambda = .87, F(1,91) = 2.66, p < .05) for likelihood to perform behaviors. Analysis at the univariate level revealed a statistically significant difference in environmental conditions only (F(1,91) = 5.90, p = .01). Participants with four or more years of experience ( M = 3.58, SD = .48) were more likely to perform skills and behaviors associated with environmental conditions than those with three or less years of experience (M = 3.28, SD = .60). This study found a moderate to high positive correlation for all five knowledge and likelihood of skills and behaviors content areas. Therefore, indicating first responders were likely to perform athletic health care skills and behaviors only if they perceived themselves to be knowledgeable in those areas. These findings indicate that first responders perceived themselves to be knowledgeable in most content areas and likely to perform athletic health care skills and behaviors for North Carolina high school football athletes. In addition it has set the foundation for future research in this area to be conducted to ensure that proper medical care is being provided to high school athletes.