We Are Concerned About Athletic Training's Future

The best way for you and your colleagues’ voices to be heard is to provide your input directly to CAATE through the current "Open Comment" process. Once you have had the opportunity to critically evaluate the proposed curricular standards from the CAATE, you can and will make a difference by providing your input through this "Open Comment" process. If you agree with a standard say so and why. If you disagree, say so and why. The CAATE needs solid input from you to move our education forward so that Athletic Training evolves alongside other health care professions. Remember, the "Open Comment" process is intended to evaluate what has been PROPOSED to be taught in our professional programs. The proposed educational content online is not final. ATs can find the standards at http://caate.net/curricular-content-standards-draft-open-comment/.

High school athletic budgets will be greatly effected by having to hire staff ATCs vs having qualified AT GAs responsible for the care of their student-athletes. Our organization manages 9 high school GAs over 7 area high schools. The knowledge these GAs are able to share with one another during their two years is immeasurable.

As a graduate assistant AT at Boston Univeristy, one of the universities at the forefront of this movement, I cannot agree more with this petition. Growth of the AT profession can be achieved without grossly expanding our scope of practice and treading on the toes of other healthcare professions. Moreover, the upcoming change to a MS will bring enough challenges in the next few years to discourage rocking the boat even further. I believe that a middle ground should be found which promotes growth by maintaining our unique profession.

I am especially concerned about liability and compensation from this expansion of roles.

While CAATE claims to have Athletic Trainer's best interests in heart, they appear to be making these changes haphazardly, without seeking the broad opinion of the clinicians they serve. These changes appear to far beyond the scope of practice that our profession appears destined to become a jack of all trades, master of none. And that is where our strength lies! No wonder other allied health care professions are put off by our desire to advance; we keep infringing upon what they do! While I am all for strengthening our profession, I feel that our movement towards evidence-based best practices is a better option than adding tools to our toolbox that are, at best, a stretch.

I completely agree.

I totally agree with this petition. Here is an idea: all of the CAATE administrators and committee members who think their ideas are superior to the rest of the NATA membership should be the first ones to be put through the education and clinical training for all of these new skills. Let's see how long it takes them to learn and become proficient at the application of these skills. I seriously doubt any of the CAATE people have ever even put their hands on medical items such as an IV needle and tube, let alone found the vein and inserted one into a live human. Let them start within their CAATE inner circle and insert an IV line into one another until proficient. Repeat this process with suturing, reduction of thumb dislocations, reduction of wrist dislocations, EKG/ECGs, urinalysis, 10 ml blood draws with a needled syringe, and the prescribing of cardiology medications or mental health medications, etc. Let’s see how many CAATE committee members resign from their committee appointments during this skills training process.

My first concern with the current proposal is that this content should not be expected from an entry level athletic trainer. This content is crossing other healthcare professional's job descriptions. I work as an athletic trainer in the Orthopaedic office setting, I have also been used in the OR as a first assist. I think we should tread lightly on the boundaries we are crossing. Also, the proposal for an ATC to be a master degree would be understood if in the same degree our profession would be respected and paid for our education. I still have to explain daily to my patients what ATC stands for. and the pay for Athletic trainers has not improved in the 9 years I have been in the field.

The propositions for changing the educational requirements for AT's is far too broad, and dilutes the strengths that AT's provide to the athletic snd medical community. I hope that these extreme propositions do not move forward.

I guess I am to uneducated to understand to 'why' behind this educational change of direction. To me this gets away from our core values and why we became athletic trainers. Sorry to see this "platform" change to the roots of athletic training education. Didn't work for PT's with changing to a DPT, won't work for ATC's either.

I am completely against forcing young people into six years of college in order to sit for the NATA certification exam. This will in no way increase salaries. It will eliminate valuable post graduate options for students wishing to build an excellent background with an undergraduate athletic training experience. There will be no change in the lowest paid allied health care profession called athletic training without a move that allows for reimbursement of services through insurance. That should be our focus not increasing required education to receive the same pay.

If this passes, it will water down what makes athletic training unique. There are already other professions that cover the other scopes of practice addressed. There is more to being able to do those things than simply taking a class or two. To do all of them competently, it would need to be much longer than a 2 year program and currently there is no ability to generate revenue for doing these things for athletic trainers. You may as add the ability to do dental exams and fix broken teeth if you want to add prescription privileges and EKG interpretation. Athletic trainers do encounter dental trauma after all. Its ludicrous to want to combine several different professions into one. There is too much involved with each of the others. Focus should be on making athletic trainers better athletic trainers and not on making them into cardiologists , PAs and orthopaedic surgeons.

While I agree 100% with this petition, we have to take extreme care of the way we express ourselves in these forums/blogs, we should be professional and consistent across the board so that other respect us as medical professionals.

I support this petition wholeheartedly. The direction of the NATA is going down the toilet. They are willing to bastardize the profession to make a quick buck within the medical profession getting an allowance from insurance on reimbursement. Athletic Trainers have stood out on their in both in clinical competence and ability to deliver results within their domains.

Former college trainer now high school football coach

As an RN married to an athletic trainer I agree with the points made in this petition. By widening the scope of practice I believe you are making it very dangerous for the athletes and the trainers.

Support entry level Master's degree, but CAATE Standards not consistent with duties of an Athletic Trainer.

I'm a recently retired R.N., and I find many of these role expansions called for among Athletic Trainers not only impractical but dangerously overstepping the bounds of the profession.

As a young professional who graduated from an undergraduate AT program 3 years ago and as a young professional who is completely passionate about the profession of Athletic Training, working in our original setting (athletics), I can honestly say that I would not have chosen Athletic Training as a degree had the proposed changes to the education been current 5 years ago. I shadowed PTs, PAs, and MDs before I entered into my undergraduate program and was disinterested. I feel in love with AT because of the setting, and the potential that I could have as an AT. However, as a stereotypical student who lived off of loans, you could not have convinced me to go back to school for 2 more years to obtain an entry-level degree giving me the same skill set I posses now, let alone make the same salary. Given that option, I would have chosen PA or PT school outright. If I were to specialize in skills that qualify me to work in their settings, I would expect the same pay as well. I love the concept of a diverse education and specialization, but those concepts, to me, are privileges of licensed ATs to be able to advance their knowledge in areas they desire. I legitimately am afraid for the survival of our profession, at least for those of us who work in athletics, because it seems the education is trying to remove us from athletics. My ability to recognize, evaluate, treat, return athletes to health and develop relationships with qualified healthcare professionals to allow interdisciplinary teamwork and respect without referral eliminates extra financial burden for my school. How else were we able to pitch our need for existence and convince schools to pay us for what we do? Our ability to be an in-house resource providing better quality healthcare to our athletes is what makes us unique. I'm afraid these changes are changing that unique identity. How can we justifiably call ourselves "Athletic" Trainers if we are taught to work primarily outside of that setting?

In general, beginning with the decision to make Athletic Training an MS degree, CAATE's legislations have been spiraling down a path of shortsighted, conflicting, and overall poor decisions.