Lab Assistants

NAIOMT Registered Lab Assistant Guidelines

As a NAIOMT-registered lab assistant, you will be required to agree to comply with ALL of the following points:

1. Maintain a current physical therapy license, and submit a current copy to the Site coordinator when required.
2. Maintain current personal malpractice insurance with a consulting services rider and submit a current copy to NAIOMT at credentialing@naiomt.com.*
3. Seek permission of the site coordinator and the lead instructor in a timely fashion.
4. Complete a course registration and release of liability for every course at which you function as a lab assistant.
5. Request written or verbal feedback from the lead instructor or from other more experienced lab assistants.
6. Be prepared to perform in the lab assistant function by reviewing the course, course notes and theory for the course level on which you will assist.
7. Come prepared to actively assist the students and the Instructor; passive auditing of the entire class by the lab assistant is not permitted.
8. Come prepared to be a model and have techniques demonstrated on you and inform the Instructor(s) of any physical limitations or precautions prior to being a demonstration model.
9. Provide assistance to students during lab time (i.e. moving among the tables, checking hand placements, body mechanics or technique, answering student questions regarding theory, technique and clinical reasoning, etc).
10. Refer questions to the instructor if unaware of proper technique or correct answer.
11. Yield the front lecture tables and front lab rows to students and allow students the opportunity to answer questions posed by the Instructor.
12. Pose only legitimate or useful questions during class in an effort to help the students’ understanding or to elucidate a point being made.
13. In the lab sessions or breaks, refer ONLY to theory or techniques that have been introduced and taught during the course, unless specifically requested to demonstrate a technique variation by the Instructor. (Despite your expertise, this is not the place to demonstrate your variation of a technique, nor treat a course participant.)
14. Treatment of course participant’s pain or dysfunctions during the course or during the breaks is NOT permitted. If the student has a problem or develops a problem during the class, the course Instructor must be informed and will manage the situation.
15. Approach each student as one would a patient/client by seeking permission to touch and perform techniques of assessment or treatment.
16. Approach each student as one would a patient/client and be alert for contraindications to techniques as well as increasing sensitivity of areas to repeated assessment or treatment.
17. Assess the students’ difficulties with comprehension or psychomotor skills and endeavor to facilitate the learning.
18. Maintain confidentiality of the course participants’ personal and health information (per HIPAA guidelines).
19. If necessary, be prepared to reimburse the site coordinator to cover the course expenses of an “extra person.”
20. Assist in room set up and break down, setting out break snacks and clean up and other lab assistant duties as needed or requested by the site coordinator or Instructor.
21. Agree to permit NAIOMT to use your e-mail address for internal NAIOMT surveys and communications, including submitting the address to site coordinators and faculty.

Malpractice Insurance

NAIOMT requires lab assistants NAIOMT-sponsored courses to have a malpractice insurance policy to cover them for activities outside of their place of employment.

Obtain and provide to NAIOMT:

1. Current malpractice insurance to cover you outside of their place of work or employment. The Malpractice Insurance should also carry a Consulting Services Liability Endorsement Rider or equivalent.
2. The Malpractice Insurance Policy must:
   1. Be in the individual’s name, OR
   2. Be accompanied by a letter from their employer’s Insurance Company to state that the named individual is all of the following: 
      1. Is an employee or owner of the company whose name appears on the Insurance
      2. Is covered to perform consulting services outside of their primary place of business
   3. AND, carry a rider that covers the individual for consultant services (For example, HPSO/CNA Consulting Services Liability Endorsement GSL-5587)