My Philosophy of Athletic Training

Athletic training is a profession that continues to be under recognized, under appreciated, and truly misunderstood by many individuals. As a current athletic training student, and future athletic training professional, I set out to develop a philosophy that would help me to not only become a successful clinician, but also improve the profession of athletic training as a whole.

First and foremost, it is important to understand that athletic training as a profession is comprised of many complex facets that are constantly impacted by varying patient populations and current trends in healthcare. Athletic trainers are well-qualified and well-suited to handle and perform the multi-faceted tasks associated with the profession because we are certified and licensed healthcare providers. While many athletic trainers hold advanced degrees in a myriad of disciplines, including kinesiology, sports nutrition, and sports psychology, it is the traditional athletic training education program that helps mold aspiring athletic trainers into the adaptable clinicians needed in the field. Athletic training education programs provide the knowledge necessary to become certified, licensed, and to fulfill the skills outlined by the Role Delineation Study. However, I think that to become a truly successful athletic training professional, outside of the traditional physical skills and promise to be bound by the Hippocratic Oath whereby you will do no harm, prospective athletic trainers must possess additional qualities innate and unique to them.

Athletic training is not for everyone, but those who are successful, I feel, possess many similar qualities that I also look to embody in my everyday work and experiences. First, athletic trainers must  be both passionate and compassionate. In this profession, there are many long hours filled with arduous tasks and paperwork. You are on the "front line" of the "war" on sports injury, and as such, you must be prepared for the unexpected and truly love what you do. Without passion, it is easy to get lost and lose interest in accomplishing your goals. Without compassion, it is easy to forget how much your actions and words affect other individuals. I firmly believe that compassion is a mainstay in athletic training, because we set out with the purpose of helping active individuals get healthy and stay healthy. Athletic training is a profession where you spend just as much time, if not more, educating individuals on how to essentially avoid employing you in the future. This is done out of a desire to help individuals and see them flourish. Compassion will allow us as clinicians to connect with our patients/athletes/clients on a deeper, interpersonal level, whereby we can achieve a greater knowledge and appreciation of views, beliefs, culture, and backgrounds. These often ignored factors undoubtedly play a significant role in the quality of healthcare we provide. I believe that I can provide the highest quality of care by establishing these working relationships with my patient population and allowing them to see that as a clinician, I am motivated by compassion, and not money, rings, statistics, or anything else.

Motivations are key to this line of work. Staying motivated and pushing both yourself and the profession forward correlates positively with overall self-fulfillment and professional development. I believe in order for the profession to become recognized, appreciated, and understood, we must strive as clinicians to maintain the utmost level of professionalism and desire to be life-long learners and teachers. Through strict adherence to the Code of Ethics set forth by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA), it is evident in my interactions with patients that I want to be viewed as an educated, qualified, professional healthcare provider, and integral member of the sports medicine team. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in athletic training, mainly because of my desire to push the limits of what I know, and what I can know. Athletic training is not a hard science, it is a field where the latest evidence-based practices and clinical diagnoses undergo constant evolution and change. It is imperative to seek out educational opportunities to stay abreast of this information. It is critical to incorporate this education and evidence-based knowledge into everyday practice, as it improves the quality of care we provide to our patients. It is also critical to recognize the importance of our role as educators in the sports medicine team. As I mentioned before, we are on the "front line", and we desire to help individuals avoid injury and stay healthy. This is accomplished only through engaging education of the individuals. Being on the "front line", the task of educating individuals falls on the shoulders of the athletic trainer. Through my experience as a member of the NATA and as a student, I am confident in my abilities to actively engage and educate individuals, thereby profoundly impacting their lives, while also making my job down the road just a little easier.

As an athletic training student and prospective certified, licensed professional, I intend to bring an exceptional level of professionalism and exceedingly high quality of care to the field of athletic training. Through self-understanding, self-motivation, an undying passion, compassion for those I treat, and an unwavering desire to remain at the forefront of my profession through education and awareness, I hope to one day become a successful, certified athletic trainer.