I support Athletic Trainer’s lawful use of dry needling.

Athletic Trainers are not personal trainers that you find in a gym.  Athletic Trainers are highly trained and skilled healthcare providers who are held to the upmost educational, professional, and licensing standards. Our educational standards require classes in anatomy and physiology, therapeutics (medicine, modalities, and exercise), evaluation of illness and injury, and emergency care just to name a few. These courses help us save lives and improve outcomes of the people that we serve. As a result of our education, we have an extensive skill set that is allowed by current law, including skills that puncture the dermis such as, starting emergency IVs, suturing, lidocaine injections, and during the midst of the 2020 pandemic, athletic trainers were among other healthcare providers able to give the COVID vaccine.

All modalities, including dry needling pose risk, but I trust licensed athletic trainers to implement dry needling in a manner that minimizes such risk while maximizing the patient’s quality of life.  I ask that you allow athletic trainers to lawfully use dry needling to benefit the populations that we serve.