Essay
Standards of Practice for a Sports Massage Therapist
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Standards of PracticeFor a sports massage practitioner, there are seven standards of practice to be met. Industry
standards of practice are created to make sure the athlete, sports massage practitioner and anyone
around them receive safe and effective care and treatment, reducing any chance of injury or harm.
The seven main standards of practice are:
Insurance
Insurance is very important for a sports massage practitioner to have. Insurance is protection against
clients or employees claiming compensation due to injury within or caused by the sports massage
practitioner. There are two types of insurance that a sports massage practitioner needs; Professional
Indemnity insurance and Public Liability insurance.
Professional Indemnity insurance is necessary to protect the sports massage practitioner from claims
of bad advice given by the sports massage practitioner to a client. On the other hand, Public Liability
insurance protects the sports massage practitioner from claims by the client of their actions during
the massages which have caused damage/injury to the body during a massage or in the sports
massage practitioners' supervision.
This standard of practice is very significant as if not obtained during the time of a claim it could put
the business or practitioner in a financial crisis. The strengths of having insurance as a sports
massage practitioner is that it covers most legal expenses or costs claimed by past clients. The
drawback of insurance is that it can be expensive, however it can normally be paid through monthly
payments, but some need to be paid yearly in full payments too. Sometimes insurance will not cover
certain claims that violate the codes of conduct; these circumstances could invalidate the insurance
cover leaving the financial issue to the sports massage practitioner.
This standard of practice could be applied to a variety of sporting massage environments. The
sporting environments are clinical, non-clinical, events and sports clubs. Insurance is extremely
necessary no matter where the practitioner is performing. If a practitioner doesn’t have insurance
there is the chance of getting sued and having no financial liability to cover any claim, therefore I
would say this standard of practice is very effective in all environments.
Health and safety
Health and safety is a very important standard of practice for a sports massage practitioner. A sports
massage practitioner should follow all the health and safety legislation necessary. Legislation is a
point that needs to be followed; a law. An example of health and safety legislation that needs to be
followed is the ‘Health and Safety at Work etc. Act (HASAW) 1974.’ This health and safety legislation
covers what employers and employees should do and need to do to remain safe in the workplace.
Another example is the ‘Data Protection Act 1998’. This legislation states that a sports massage
practitioner should keep a record of their treatments. These records need to be kept for at least
seven years. The records should be kept in a safe place such as a safe or a lockable filing cabinet.
The ‘Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999’ legislation states that the sports
massage practitioner needs to carry out a risk assessment for each environment they will work out
of. Different environments include a client's house, their clinic, a tent within a field or a club's
clubhouse etc. The risk assessment should identify any hazards and how likely these are to occur and
how to prevent them if they were to occur.
, The strengths of this standard of practice are that it will minimise the risk of getting sued as
following these legislations will keep clients safe, thus lowering the chance of getting harmed or
injured. This is because once the practitioner has followed all the acts, they should've found any
hazards and how to stay safe. The weakness of this standard of practice is that it takes time to go
through each act to ensure each point is met, it could also be costly as the practitioner will have to
purchase certain items to meet the legislations such as filing cabinets etc. Overall, I believe that this
standard of practice is very significant as it keeps the clients, business and practitioner safe.
This standard of practice could be and should be applied to all environments as it is effective to all
massage environments. For example, when in a sports club the players should be treated as per the
relevant legislation as if they were not the club could sue for injuring one of their players. If this is a
larger sports club and the issue was to go public, this could potentially ruin the reputation of the
practitioner and could result in losing clients. An example of a risk that could occur in the specific
environment of clinical would be a client slipping and falling over a spilled bit of body oil on the floor
and injuring themselves. This is less likely to happen in the massage environment of an event. If the
event was perhaps outside on a field the client would have more grip on the floor and the oil would
just dissolve into the mud rather than staying on a wooden floor in a clinical environment. A further
risk more likely to occur in a sporting environment outside (events) would be getting unwell from the
weather (either too hot or too cold) if the practitioner was working at an outdoor event. This would
be much less likely to occur in the other massage environments.
The environment
An important standard of practice needing to be met as a sports massage practitioner is the
environment. The environment is a very important part for a client as this could be the factor that
either does or doesn’t bring them back. The major environmental factors that sport massage
practitioners should focus on are privacy, cleanliness, first aid, safe place for belongings,
temperature and space. If all these factors are met to the correct standard the client and
practitioner will feel comfortable. If these factors are not met the clients may not feel comfortable
causing them not to return, this will then result in the practitioner losing an income. An example of
this would be when a practitioner is working in the massage environment of a sports club. A safe
place for client belongings would be accessible in the form of lockers. This will make them feel at
ease; in other massage environments such as events there may be safe places to put their personal
items which could make them nervous and uptight during their massage.
The strength of this standard of practice is that the environment will help make the client feel happy
in their surroundings, and therefore will help maintain the income coming into the sport massage
practitioner's business. Another strength is it will also help make the sport massage practitioner feel
comfortable, leading to a better massage. If the practitioner does not feel comfortable, they won't
perform at their best, which would be detrimental to their client.
The weakness of this standard of practice is that it's hard to meet and perfect every possible factor.
This can be due to cost but other factors as well. An example of these issues could be the
requirements needed for a private room in a suitable location, and temperature control. I believe
that this standard of practice is very significant as it would be one of the main reasons for a client to
return. If these clients don’t come back, it could impact the business reputation.
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