Surveillance study for students in acquiring certification of athletic trainer -student’s sports background, field practice, and their expectation-

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate students’ sports background (sports and physical training), field practice experience as athletic trainer and their job expectations after graduation. The participants of this study are 343 students from sports based universities and physical therapy universities that offer a course for athletic trainer certification (JSPO-AT) in Japan. The responses of the two groups of students were compared and it was found out that both group have sports background experience, however, there were only over 30% of them who have physical training experience. Different trends on participants’ field practice experience as athletic trainer was noted as they differ in their place and frequency of practice per week. As to the job expectation after graduation, physical therapy university group has more expectation to be an athletic trainer than students from sports based university group.