Career Decisions of Senior Athletic Training Students and Recent Graduates of Accredited Athletic Training Education Programs

Context: Athletic training students and graduates are faced with many factors that direct them into or away from the athletic training profession as a final career choice. Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the career decisions made by athletic training students following graduation from an accredited professional athletic training edcuation program (ATEP) and what work-related and ATEP program factors influenced their career decisions. Design: A 42-question self-reporting web-based survey was used. Setting: CAATE/CAAHEP-accredited ATEP programs. Participants: Seventeen hundred and ninety-two seniors and recent graduates of CAATE/CAAHEP-accredited programs from May 2005 through June 2007. Outcome Measures: Descriptive statistics were utilized to obtain frequency counts of the participants' responses. Results: The majority of the participants (82.4%) chose to pursue a career as an athletic trainer (AT), while the remainder (17.6%), indicated they did not seek employment as an AT. The college/university setting was the most frequently selected by those employed (45.6%) and those seeking employment (35.6%) as an AT. All 8 ATEP factors (clinical experience hours, clinical experience variety, roles/functions of a clinical instructor [CI] or approved clinical instructor [ACI], preparation to enter the field, level of confidence, CI or ACI attitude toward work setting, CI or ACI demonstration of professionalism, and encouragement from faculty, CI or ACI) were found to be influential in the participants' decisions to pursue a career as an AT. Salary, number of work hours per week, found another profession more interesting, and uncertain or changing work schedule were the most influential factors reported for choosing to not pursue a career as an AT. Conclusions: The decision to pursue a career as an AT is influenced by ATEP faculty, ACIs, and CIs.