TAMPA, Fla. — Athletic trainers who have lost their livelihoods due to the coronavirus pandemic are jumping at opportunities to use their medical knowledge to assist on the front lines in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
- AdventHealth looking for help at urgent care locations
- Opportunity for trainers to show they are a health care profession
- More coronavirus news
Athletic trainer Chris Fuhrman was furloughed from his job as a high school athletic trainer when the coronavirus shut down all Florida schools, leaving him without a job, a paycheck, or any plans moving forward.
“First thing I did was I went to Publix to see what BOGO deals they had,” said Fuhrman,
But what he did have was a knowledge of the medical field, which currently needs all hands on deck.
So when he found out AdventHealth was looking for help at their urgent care locations, he jumped at the opportunity.
“I’m just making sure it’s safe enough for patients to enter into the clinics just because we don’t want someone who potentially has coronavirus to spread it to all the other patients inside or potentially the staff inside,” said Fuhrman.
Specifically, Fuhrman and others hired for these positions are greeting patients in the parking lots outside of urgent care facilities, screening them in order to determine if it is safe for them to enter the waiting room or if they should remain in their cars away from other waiting patients.
AdventHealth has hired a number of athletic trainers to fill these roles, and Fuhrman says he’s thankful for the opportunity for many reasons.
“It’s a great opportunity for athletic trainers to step up and show the world that we are a health care profession and we are able to assist in cases like this,” he explained.
“They are really potentially saving some lives by doing this," he went on. "Whether it’s people in the clinics, saving them from anybody with coronavirus going in there, and then obviously those of us who didn’t have jobs now can actually afford to eat."
He says, of course, he hopes the pandemic ends soon, but he plans to help out every way he can until it’s over.
In a statement, AdventHealth says they have tried match skills to various roles to keep people employed in an effort to care for the public and the workforce during such unprecedented times.