1. Dale Forsdyke 1, 2. Adam Gledhill 2, 3. Clare Ardern 3,4,5
+ Author Affiliations
1. Applied Human Sciences Department, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, York St John University, York, UK.
2. Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK
3. Aspetar Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar
4. Division of Physiotherapy, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
5. School of Allied Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Characteristics of an athlete who is psychologically ready to RTS are multifaceted and include, among others: realistic expectations, high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of anxiety.1 ,4 ,6 Psychological readiness to RTS is likely influenced by multiple social agents, personal and contextual factors (eg, coaches, sports medicine practitioners, personality traits, performance level).4 Consequently, RTS decisions should be made from an interdisciplinary perspective, with multidimensional monitoring of psychological factors (eg, concurrently monitoring self-efficacy and re-injury anxiety levels).6
Psychological readiness to RTS is not commonly monitored in practice, despite specific instruments being available.7 Many practitioners feel underprepared to work within this area8 or might view evaluating psychological readiness to RTS as being outside their scope of their practice. On the other hand, sports medicine practitioners are ideally positioned to monitor athletes, because of the strong working relationship developed throughout injury rehabilitation.
In this editorial, we describe three key elements that practitioners can consider when monitoring psychological readiness to RTS in preparation for RTS decision-making.
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http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2016/12/01/bjsports-2016-096770[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]