This document provides an in depth essay about standards of practice of a sport massage practitioner and how each could be applied to the four clinical environments.
Standards of Practice
For 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.
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