188. Updates in Adolescent Health (PT6)

Now, I know, Ashley, for many athletes, parents, coaches, and including NPs, the pre-participation physical is often viewed as a routine clearance exam.

I know I'm seeing advertisements everywhere saying, "Sports physical, $25." It just feels like it's just a form that needs to be signed before the season starts.

But we know there's more than that.

Right.

And as NPs, we realize now that the sports physical has evolved into one of the most valuable preventive healthcare encounters that allows us to identify potential risk.

And unfortunately, for many athletes, this may be the only physical they're getting.

So treating it as more than a form that you fill out and you check boxes is extremely important because you may detect underlying health concerns.

You're gonna provide anticipatory guidance and advocate for the safety and wellbeing of our patients.

patients.One of the things I love about being an NP is this is an opportunity to really look beyond checking that box and focus on holistic health.

So we're gonna talk about a lot of things, but whether we're screening for cardiac risk factors, which I know there's a lot of questions about, and we have some answers, or looking at prior injuries and what does that mean, or chronic health conditions.

Lots of questions today about nutrition and hydration, or even mental health concerns, which Ashley, you and I both know there are not as many questions about, but we do uncover those kinds of concerns a lot in these visits.

And regardless of where you're at, these visits can have a really meaningful impact on athletes' long-term outcomes, and that's ultimately what we're here for, is promoting child health.

Exactly.

And we're really gonna explore how NPs can use the pre-participation physical as a tool for prevention rather than just a gateway so they can enter into sports, and that's traditionally how this has been viewed.

And we're gonna discuss best practices for conducting the comprehensive sports physicals and highlight key considerations that help us identify concerns before they become a serious problem.

We are also going to review, for those of you listening, some current approaches to concussion recognition.

That's a hot topic.

Return to play protocols.

Lots of pressure from parents and coaches.

We'll talk about how to deal with that as an NP and some evidence-based strategies, especially for injury prevention, overuse injuries that are becoming all too common with the changes in the NIL and college sports, and we'll talk about how we can educate families to best respond to those.

Yeah, and because athletic performance isn't just about physical health, just like we've said, we're gonna spend time also discussing mental health screening, psychological safety, early intervention.

And it's an opportunity to recognize depression, anxiety, eating disorders, sleep disorders, substance use, and suicide risk.

Well, before we finish, Ashley, I do wanna talk about some trends too, like biohacking.

I know I'm getting more and more questions about this, and most of them are coming from my young athletes, not even the parents.

They're wanting to know, and NPs find themselves caught off guard.