Accredited athletic training clinical experience : are we adequately preparing our students?

Abstract

The purpose for the current study is to examine the perceived preparation of newly educated Certified Athletic Trainers from Accredited Athletic Training Programs' based on clinical educational experiences as compared to two older models of clinical educational experiences, the curriculum and internship models. This study was a quantitative study that examined the perceived preparation of the Certified Athletic Trainer for the BOC Examination and for the Profession based upon the route to Certification both in the didactic classroom and in the clinical education setting. An area of interest was the significant amount of findings for preparation for the BOC which indicated the newer programs were better preparing student for the national certification exam, however, they were not better at preparing our students for the profession of athletic training. The second area of interest in the study showed graduate accredited programs did a better job in preparing students in the area of clinical exam and diagnosis for the BOC than any other program type. This was the only program type and area of concentration that showed such a significant difference among all programs.