In the Game
KU Medical Center’s new master’s degree in athletic training focuses on keeping everyone healthy.
"Ready to go on a whim" is how Natalie Ligtenberg describes most of her major life decisions.
"I've made last-minute decisions that turned out to be the best decisions of my life," she said. To that list she adds her decision to enroll in the new athletic training program at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
The Master of Science in Athletic Training attracted Ligtenberg as one of three students in the fledging program, which is part of the newly renamed Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training. The first classes began in the summer session of 2021 under the direction of LesLee Taylor, Ph.D. Taylor started a similar program at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas.
This new degree program at KU Medical Center reflects a change in how the athletic training profession is preparing its next generation. Instead of a bachelor's degree in athletic training, students must now complete a master's degree to help elevate the profession and equalize it with other health care services.
Colleges and universities were given seven years to either transition to a graduate program or shutter its bachelor's degree in athletic training. At some universities, the last class of freshmen studying for a bachelor's degree in athletic training began in fall 2021. But at the University of Kansas, the final athletic training undergraduates earned their degrees in 2020, and the process of moving the program to KU Medical Center began.
TRANSITIONING FROM KU TO KU MEDICAL CENTER
Todd Neuharth, director of accreditation for the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), said the University of Kansas is unique in its decision to relocate its athletic training program from the main campus in Lawrence to the medical center campus in Kansas City. He said only three U.S. universities have accredited athletic training programs at academic medical centers. Once KU Medical Center's program earns accreditation, it will be the fourth ― with more possibly on the way.
Other athletic training programs are considering the move to medical centers because the amended CAATE standards stress the value of health care settings to the program's goals and objectives.
"There is a ton of opportunity at the medical center," Taylor said. "Being housed in the KU School of Health Professions with the physical therapy and the Ph.D. in rehabilitation science programs is a great opportunity for collaboration and student engagement."
In fact, many of the first-year athletic-training classes are co-listed as physical therapy classes and are team-taught by professors from both the physical therapy and athletic training programs.
For Abby Garrett, one of the three graduate students in the current program, having a close connection to the physical therapy program is yet another plus of the athletic training program. The Jayhawk alumna, a graduate of exercise science, said she considered the medical center's physical therapy graduate program before taking the leap into the athletic training program instead.
"That's my favorite thing about having the athletic training program at KU Medical Center," Garrett said. "We share information, and it's nice to study with them to get things from a physical therapist's point of view. And then we add an athletic trainer's view."
Taylor said the partnership with the physical therapy program has gone well. She said she was initially cautious about piggybacking onto a respected existing program with 77 years of history at KU Medical Center.
"But the physical therapy professors have embraced both the athletic training faculty and students as collaborative partners," Taylor said.
WHAT IS ATHLETIC TRAINING?
So, what exactly is athletic training, and how does it differ from physical therapy? The goals of athletic training and physical therapy overlap in some areas since both professions use knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology ― or how the body moves ― to improve how the body performs.
Historically, one main difference used to be the patients involved. Athletic trainers focused on athletes and physical therapists took care of non-athletes who needed help recovering from an injury or symptom of a long-term affliction.
But the modern-day athletic trainers don't limit themselves to treating only athletes. According to the National Athletic Trainers' Association, athletic trainers are highly qualified, multiskilled health care professionals who provide primary care as well as injury and illness prevention. They promote wellness, respond to emergencies and provide clinical diagnosis. After the diagnosis, they work on effective therapies for patients' injuries and medical conditions.
"I think it's a misnomer that athletic trainers just train athletes. That's actually a very small part of what we do," Taylor said. "There's a preventative aspect to caring for physically active individuals, not just athletes, so they can ultimately return to activities they were wanting to be involved in."
Taylor explained the difference between physical therapy and athletic training in terms of a care continuum. Physical therapy as a profession encompasses a larger continuum of care, while athletic training tackles out only part of that continuum and specializes.
"In other professions, someone comes to you who has already been hurt or has a history of injuries. Being there when the injury occurs is an amazing part of athletic training. But it is just one part of the profession."
INCREASED DEMAND
Athletic trainers have more options for employment, said Brian Seiler, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor for the athletic training program in the Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training. Physicians are realizing the economic savings of having an athletic trainer on staff. An orthopedic clinic in Lee's Summit, Missouri, for example, has at least one athletic trainer for every doctor in the clinic, he said.
"These athletic trainers work right alongside the physician, whether that be in the operating room, or through rehab or through post-surgery rehab of the patients," Seiler said.
That high demand for athletic trainers has pushed average beginning salaries to their highest level ever, explained CAATE's Neuharth.
"We are optimistic that an increased demand for athletic trainers coupled with a lower supply will result in increased salaries," Neuharth said. "Anecdotally, what we're seeing is that programs at our institutions are increasing salaries by $10,000 to $15,000."
The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that the median annual salary for athletic trainers in 2020 was $49,860, which is significantly lower than its related professions. For example, the average salary for physical therapists in 2020 was $91,010, and for nurse anesthetists, $117,670. But in 2020, athletic trainers needed only a bachelor's degree, and the other two professions demanded at least a master's degree. Athletic trainers will also need a master's degree by 2024.
FINDING COMMUNITY PARTNERS
As a former athlete herself, Garrett said she's looking forward to the challenges of a master's degree in athletic training.
"Anatomy and biomechanics are incredibly interesting to me. I played sports all throughout my life: field hockey, soccer, track, softball ― you name it, I did it," Garrett said. "I want to continue that active lifestyle and understand the science behind it all."
The master's program currently takes two years to complete: 68 credit hours in six semesters. For the last 16 weeks, students participate in an immersive clinical experience where they practice what they've learned.
Seiler, who is also director of clinical education for the athletic training program, said he is hoping to involve many community partners ― so the program's students get excellent and varied clinical experience.
"I've reached out and established relations with Lawrence as well as across the state line in Missouri," Seiler said. "We expect the students to select a site where they can see themselves in the future."
The KU Medical Center athletic training program's first community partner was Lansing (Kansas) High School. With an enrollment of 897 students and a location 30+ minutes northwest of the medical center's Kansas City, Kansas, campus, the school seemed a perfect starting place, Seiler said.
On the horizon are other partnerships with high schools, colleges and universities and professional teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals and Sporting KC.
"People always associate professional sports with athletic training ― and those are excellent jobs ― but the Kansas City metro area is filled with other incredible opportunities as well," Taylor said.
KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH KU ATHLETICS
One perceived disadvantage of the athletic training program's move to Kansas City could be the 42 miles between the athletic training students and the student athletes at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Before athletic training became a bachelor's degree at KU in 2003, it was an apprenticeship program with KU Athletics.
Dawn Emerson, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation Science and Athletic Training, led the undergraduate athletic training program in Lawrence as director before joining the graduate-level athletic training program at the medical center. As the only faculty member who was hired on from Lawrence, she has a unique perspective.
"We had a long history with KU athletics, and they grew used to seeing us all the time and having the student athletic trainers right there, every day," Emerson said.
But that approach to athletic training doesn't work for master's-level education, she explained.
"It looks different now, where students can really focus on health care," Emerson said. "You can get on another level with them and interact with them in a positive way about being health care professionals."
The athletic training students will continue to have KU Athletics as possible community partner, Seiler said, so the alliance remains, but in a different form.
The future of athletic training at KU'"
The biggest goal for the fledging program is to receive its accreditation from the CAATE, since accreditation announces to the world that the quality of education has been verified by an outside source.
The athletic training program submitted a self-study in July 2022. It will host a comprehensive visit in late 2022 or early 2023 and wait for the results in spring or summer of 2023. By then, this first cohort will have completed the program, and their professional standing and earning potential could be affected by the accreditation decision. A committee from CAATE makes the final decision for accreditation.
CAATE's Neuharth cautions that no accreditation is guaranteed, but KU Medical Center does have one ace in the hole: its current director was a former president of CAATE.
"LesLee was on the commission when the accreditation standards were approved," Neuharth said. "She was president when the standards were approved, and she played a vital role in the development of new peer review training that we are using to achieve those standards."
Taylor said she moved to Kansas City in part because her family was nearby (she has a sister in Overland Park, and her mother lives in central Kansas), but also because she wanted the challenge of building a quality athletic training program in her home state.
"We're not going to get significant enrollment until we get that accreditation," she said. "I know that the current students have taken a chance on me, but I have every confidence that it's going to happen."
Ligtenberg, that student who made some of her best decisions on whim, didn't realize she was making a calculated risk until after she decided to enroll (but before her actual enrollment).
"I didn't realize how brand-new everything was going to be until I got here," Ligtenberg said. "But KU has always been my dream school. When I found the program and realized it would be at the master's level, I knew it was the right fit."