Athletic Trainer

Duties and Responsibilities: Athletic Trainers are health care professionals who collaborate with physicians to provide preventative services, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions. They also focus on injury/illness prevention, first aid and emergency care, assessment of injury/illness, human anatomy and physiology, therapeutic modalities, and nutrition. . Athletic trainers provide physical medicine, rehabilitative and preventative services. Athletic trainers treat a breadth of patients, including but not limited to: professional, college, secondary school and youth athletes, dancers, musicians and military personnel.

Salary: $33,097- $50,643

The annual salary for an Athletic Trainer varies depending on a number of factors including industry, company size, location, years of experience, and level of education.

Education: The minimum requirement for most athletic trainer positions is a bachelor's degree. The curricula include science and health-related subjects, such as nutrition, kinesiology, biomechanics and exercise physiology. Experience requirements include supervised time in clinics and internships, which may be with a college or local professional sports teams. Students who want to become certified athletic trainers must earn a degree from an accredited athletic training curriculum. More than 70 percent of certified athletic trainers hold at least a master’s degree.

Reflection: Being an Athletic Trainer sounds interesting and fun. Being in the field and caring for those who are injured sounds more fun than having to sit around in an office waiting for patients to come. I've been learning about being an athletic trainer in my sports med class so I’m familiar with this career and although the pay may not be so good it’s still a career I wouldn’t mind doing in the medical field.