Clinic Equipment & Supplies

As an athletic trainer, choosing from our athletic trainer kits is one of the most important decisions you will make. The correct athletic trainer kit will enable you to do your job efficiently and correctly, as you will have all your supplies ready to hand when you need them. Some of the questions you will need to ask yourself before making this decision are: How important to you is portability vs. ease of access? These two design objectives are often at conflict with each other. If you are on the move a lot, you may prefer an athletic trainer kit that you can easily carry around e.g. one with straps, handles or wheels. However, if you will not be moving from place, it  will be more important for you to easily find what you need at any given moment. Your choice will likely sacrifice wheels, straps, etc. for ease of access. How many people will you be responsible for looking after? The larger this number, the greater the size of kit that will be ideal for you. What working conditions will you encounter most frequently? If you will frequently encounter ice, snow, mud or other adverse conditions, you should choose from one of the athletic trainer kits designed with durability in mind. Your kit will be a relatively expensive investment. You will want to have as many years of service from it as possible before having to replace it.

Medical diagnosis is the process of analyzing a patient's symptoms and signs in order to conclude which underlying disease or condition best explains them.  Consequently, diagnostic tools will help your staff accurately analyze the conditions from which your patients may be suffering. Accurate and timely diagnoses will assist you to treat patients efficiently without having to carry out superfluous testing. This in turn will result in a more efficient and profitable clinical operation as well as a higher satisfaction level among your patients. From this, you can see that choosing the appropriate diagnostic tools is an important factor in the eventual success of your clinic. You should make these choices after carefully analyzing the types of patients you presently see at your clinic.  You should also consider how this may change over the future. The diagnostic tools in this section include equipment that your patients may use at home for basic diagnosis.  They also include more powerful tools that require medical training for safe and effective use. The latter are only for use by healthcare professionals and should not be sold to patients for home use.

First Aid is given to any person struck with a sudden illness or injury. The intention is to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening or to promote recovery The proper application of first aid often requires relevant training. Consequently, you should ensure that the staff at your clinic possess the training they will need to use the supplies in this section. When selecting supplies in this section, it is probably true to say that you should always select items that you will need to treat minor cuts, punctures, burns and other common injuries. You may also want to consider acquiring some of the pre-assembled first aid kits that are available. You can make these available to your patients or customers as useful accessories for home use. They are also useful to individuals who frequently go off on camping, hunting or other outdoor expeditions. In these circumstances, minor accidents are likely to occur and emergency aid will be essential. Additionally, these individuals may not be close to comprehensive healthcare facilities should an emergency occur. In these situations, the availability of first aid supplies is all the more important.

Creams & ointments meet many needs in a typical physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic or other clinical practice involving manual therapy. The ideal massage cream needs to provide the glide property of an oil in order to give the therapist the freedom to apply deeper modalities when this is the appropriate choice. This would be important, for example, for a massage therapist performing longitudinal gliding therapy on a patient. At other times, the cream or ointment needs to possess the frictional property of a lotion. An example of this would be the application of transverse friction to tendon or ligament injuries in order to break down thickened scar tissue that may be causing pain to the patient. The selection of creams & ointments in this section will provide various choices as to the mix between glide and friction. The optimal choice will depend on the mix of techniques you prefer to apply in your practice.

A medical mask is a loose fitting and disposable device that forms a physical barrier between (a) the wearer's mouth and nose, and (b) potential contaminants in the wearer's immediate environment. It is  also called a medical face mask. On a practical level, these masks will protect the wearer from large viral or bacterial particles. These may be in droplets, sprays, splashes and splatter. They may also provide protection to others in the vicinity of the wearer from his or her saliva and respiratory expulsions. However, a medical face mask will not protect the user from small viral or biological particles. These may be present in the sneezes or coughs of others in the wearer's immediate environment. They are therefore generally less effective than respirators. Furthermore, they do not form a close fitting seal against the face as do most respirators. A medical face mask is particularly recommended for patients suffering from infectious respiratory illnesses (such as COVID-19) when KN95 or N95 respirators are not available. They are also particularly important PPE for for those caring for these patients (again, when N95 or KN95 respirators are not available). A medical mask is required for health care works such as a physiotherapist or massage therapist. This is due to their close proximity to the patients they are treating. In most cases, these masks will need to be at the ASTM Level 2 standard (see below). Testers usually evaluate the medical masks in this section for conformance with standards set by the ASTM. This organization was formerly known as the American Society for Testing & Materials.

A protective face shield is a device worn to protect the eyes, nose and mouth from invasion of foreign, potentially harmful, matter.  Protective face shields are in high demand in Canada presently as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These shields offer a number of advantages over other similar types of PPE. First, they are reusable, whereas masks and respirators can generally only be reused a limited number of times. To clear or clean your face shield, just rinse it in a mixture of water and a mild dishwashing detergent. Then rinse it in fresh water and use a clean soft cloth or sponge to clean the shield.  For especially good results, wipe your protective face shield dry  with a microfiber cloth. Second,  protective face shields do not press against the user's face in the way that N95 or medical masks do. This is a particularly important consideration for claustrophobic users. For the same reason, shields will not interfere with make-up. Third, they offer unlimited 360 degree vision. There is none of the fogging that spectacle wearers have to contend with when wearing a medical mask or N95 respirator. The shields usually come with anti fogging and anti shatter properties for extra safety and convenience. Finally, these shields do not interfere with your speech. You will continue to be clearly audible to co workers and others in your vicinity. This can have important safety implications in some situations. For these reasons, protective face shield sales in Canada have grown steadily as awareness of these advantages has spread.

A respirator mask is a device that protects the wearer from hazardous fumes, gases and vapors. It will also provide protection from particulate matter such as dust and airborne mico-organisms. Generally speaking, there are two types of respirator - air purifying and air supplied. The former produces breathable air by filtering the contaminants from the atmosphere around the user. The latter provides a supply of air that is separate from the contaminated atmosphere. In this section, we present air purifying respirator masks of the single use, disposable type. To protect the wearer from hazardous atmospheres, respirators need a harnessing mechanism to hold the masks to the wearer's head and create an airtight fit against his or her skin. Some use loops that go around the ears while other use loops that go around the back of the head. Another important classification of respirator masks is between those that only cover the bottom of the face and those that provide full face coverage. The former are suitable only when the surrounding atmosphere does not pose a threat to the eyes or to the exposed part of the face. The respirators in this section are all of the half-face type. The respirator masks included in this section can be used mainly for protection from non oil particulate matter including both dusts and biological pathogens. They do not provide protection from gases or fumes.  Users requiring protection from gases and vapors will need a respirator with a more efficient filtering mechanism. The particulate matter against which these respirators will provide protection can generally be as small as 0.3 microns in size. This is approximately the size of a grain of sodium chloride (salt).

Wound care is a complex and extended process in which the skin and the underlying tissues repair themselves after the patient has experienced an injury. For wound care to be successful, the skin and underlying tissues must have the opportunity to continue the healing process without interference from foreign matter. Without this opportunity, contamination of the wound can result. By preventing foreign matter from entering the wound, the pads, sponges, bandages and other wound covers in this section will allow the healing process to continue without interference. Additionally, where diabetic wounds, ulcers etc. are concerned, the wound care process faces further complications. Because these wounds frequently occur on the soles of the feet, the simple act of walking places pressure on the wound and can inhibit the healing process. Consequently, footwear that shifts weight pressure from the injured part of the foot to an uninjured area can play a valuable role in the recovery process.

In recent years, exercise rehabilitation has gained increasing attention as a way to restore physical function and improve quality of life for patients suffering from a broad variety of injuries. The goals of this form of therapy can range from alleviating muscle weakness and dysfunction to reducing the risk of unfavorable cardiovascular outcomes. In addition to these physical benefits, exercise  rehabilitation can be of significant benefit where mental function, quality of sleep, stress levels and even the overall psychological outlook are concerned. Exercise rehabilitation can be particularly beneficial in treating:

• Chronic injuries such as long term back or knee pain.
• Injuries that are not responding to manual treatment, possibly due to muscle weakness or poor posture.

It can also be of benefit to those seeking to improve strength and fitness as a way to reduce the risk of injury. If a significant number of your patients have the therapeutic needs described above, you should consider an investment in exercise rehabilitation equipment.