URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Spring_2018_Melissa-McCarthy

Konin believes that parents and coaches’ willingness to allow concussed youth players to jeopardize their health and safety further reflects of the ineffectiveness of current concussion education programs. Konin’s findings have helped drive other researchers, including Konin’s graduate students Cassie Catlow ’18, Kelley Johnson ’18, Sam Kushner ’18, and Tyler McCarthy ‘18 to study the effectiveness of physical therapy graduate programs concussion curricula. They surveyed physical therapy graduate programs around the nation on how many hours they spent on clinical concussion education, and how confident their students were prepared to make “return-to-play decisions.” Surveys went to 233 physical therapy programs, and of the completed responses nearly all were confident that their students were qualified to make this critical decision. This despite the fact that few programs actually taught concussion content within their curriculum or included any form of required clinical experience assessing and managing sport-related concussions. Konin says he is confident that his research and the future research by his colleagues will prompt parents, players, coaches and health care providers to demand more effective concussion education.

Cameron Macdonald, ‘19, Ph.D. candidate, physical therapy, demonstrates balance assessment for concussion.

“The international rules are if you sustain a concussion, you must immediately leave the game, and you cannot re-enter the game until you have been examined by a physician,” Konin says. “But a majority of parents, in that circumstance, if there are only two minutes left in the game in the championship, just let them play,” he says. “there is so much more learning that parents, athletes, and even us as physical therapists can do.” - Cassie Catlow

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