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Context: The clinical practice of athletic training involves the daily application of public health (PH) principles and practices. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in understanding and promoting the intersections of athletic training and PH. Objective: The primary objective of this article is to share the path taken by the Oregon State University athletic training faculty to integrate PH perspectives into our work and provide examples of how this has affected our program, scholarly work, and service activities. Background: Our college pursued and obtained accreditation from the Council for Education for Public Health. During the pursuit of accreditation, the college's leadership encouraged each academic program to integrate direct connections to PH. Description: Our athletic training program embraced the administration's encouragement to adopt a PH lens and took definitive steps developing relationships and establishing collaborations with PH experts. Additionally, we started to establish approaches for infusing PH content and perspectives into our curriculum. Clinical Advantage: Athletic training programs can position themselves and their students to forge partnerships and find resources, solutions, or skill sets that are currently underutilized in athletic training. Conclusions: The adoption of a PH lens by the athletic training program at Oregon State University has benefitted students and faculty. We recommend all athletic training programs explore opportunities to integrate PH into activities inside and outside of the classroom.

Background: Best practice recommendations for sports-related emergency preparation include implementation of venue-specific emergency action plans (EAPs), access to early defibrillation, and first responders-specifically coaches-trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator (AED) use. The objective was to determine whether high schools had implemented these 3 recommendations and whether schools with a certified athletic trainer (AT) were more likely to have done so.Hypothesis: Schools with an AT were more likely to have implemented the recommendations.Study Design: Cross-sectional study.Level Of Evidence: Level 4.Methods: All Oregon School Activities Association member school athletic directors were invited to complete a survey on sports-related emergency preparedness and AT availability at their school. Chi-square and Fisher exact tests were used to analyze the associations between emergency preparedness and AT availability.Results: In total, 108 respondents (37% response rate) completed the survey. Exactly half reported having an AT available. Only 11% (95% CI, 6%-19%) of the schools had implemented all 3 recommendations, 29% (95% CI, 21%-39%) had implemented 2, 32% (95% CI, 24%-42%) had implemented 1, and 27% (95% CI, 19%-36%) had not implemented any of the recommendations. AT availability was associated with implementation of the recommendations (χ2 = 10.3, P = 0.02), and the proportion of schools with ATs increased with the number of recommendations implemented (χ2 = 9.3, P < 0.01). Schools with an AT were more likely to implement venue-specific EAPs (52% vs 24%, P < 0.01) and have an AED available for early defibrillation (69% vs 44%, P = 0.02) but not more likely to require coach training (33% vs 28%, P = 0.68).Conclusions: Despite best practice recommendations, most schools were inadequately prepared for sports-related emergencies. Schools with an AT were more likely to implement some, but not all, of the recommendations. Policy changes may be needed to improve implementation.Clinical Relevance: Most Oregon high schools need to do more to prepare for sports-related emergencies. The results provide evidence for sports medicine professionals and administrators to inform policy changes that ensure the safety of athletes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]