Master's Level Professional Athletic Training Programs: Program Characteristics, Graduation Requirements, and Outcome Measures

Abstract

Context: While currently there are 2 curriculum route options leading to athletic training certification, the future of athletic training education is being heavily debated. While master's-level professional (MLP) athletic training programs account for less than 8% of all accredited programs, these programs have seen tremendous growth in the past decade. Little is known about the characteristics of these MLP programs or the graduates they produce. Objective: To perform exploratory analysis of MLP program history, cohort characteristics, program and graduation requirements, and outcome measures. Design: Cross-sectional design involving online survey research. Patients or Other Participants: Eleven MLP program directors. Main Outcome Measure(s): Survey data were collected via Formstack.com. Open-ended questions were categorized based on common themes and were coded. Descriptive statistics and correlations were calculated. Results: Accreditation of MLP programs was pursued for a variety of reasons. Programs ...