ABSTRACT.
Howard, Christine, M.S., December 2013 Health & Human Performance
Descriptive Study on the Academic and Employment Expectations of Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainers
Chairperson: Dr. Valerie Moody
Introduction: It is common for newly certified athletic trainers to acquire a graduate assistantship as a certified athletic trainer. This graduate assistantship is a unique role in the profession where they juggle the demands of the job as a certified athletic trainer with the demands of attending graduate school full-time. There are few studies on this specific population of athletic trainers. Objective: To describe the academic and employment expectations of graduate assistant certified athletic trainers, Design: A descriptive study that used an electronic survey to explore the expectations of graduate assistant athletic trainers. Methods: National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) sent a broadcast email to 302 certified-student members inviting them to participate in the study. Two reminder emails were also sent during the collection period. Eighty graduate assistant athletic trainers completed the survey in its entirety for a response rate of 26.5%. Intervention: Expectations of Graduate Assistant Certified Athletic Trainers Survey (EGAATCS) was developed using SurveyMonkey software. The survey consists of 7 demographic questions and 36 questions pertaining to specific job requirements (employment expectations) and academics (academic expectations), as well as two open-ended optional questions asking about the rewards and challenges of the position. Analysis: Quantitative data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Qualitative data analysis used a grounded theory approach that utilized open, axial, and selective coding procedures. Results: Graduate assistant certified athletic trainers focus more on their job and employment responsibilities than they do on their academic responsibilities. Conclusion: Graduate assistant certified athletic trainers are expected to attend graduate school full time while working (essentially) a full time job. Balance and time management pose to be the biggest challenges they face, while the most gratifying aspect was found in their socialization and clinical experiences.
Keywords: clinical experience, education, athletic training, role strain
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-01142014-113157 |
| Date | 07 February 2014 |
| Creators | Howard, Christine D. |
| Contributors | Dr. Charles Palmer, Dr. Valerie Moody, Dr. Patty Kero |
| Publisher | The University of Montana |
| Source Sets | University of Montana Missoula |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-01142014-113157/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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