Overview | Curriculum | Experiential Learning
No longer accepting freshmen starting Fall 2009.
Overview
Athletic trainers are sports medicine specialists who focus on the prevention, evaluation, management, treatment, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries. Athletic trainers care for physically active individuals in secondary schools, colleges and universities, professional athletic teams, hospitals, private clinics, and industrial settings under the direction of a physician. They are the ones who get the athletes back into the game.
The unique combination of innovative courses, hands-on labs, extensive clinicals and co-op experiences will prepare you like no other athletic training program to enter the world of health care.
For more information about the profession of athletic training, you can read a Professional Overview, and Facts About Athletic Training from the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA).
Professional Certification: Northeastern's athletic training education program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). Students who graduate from the program are eligible to sit for the Board of Certification (BOC) examination. Upon passing the BOC examination, you must apply for licensure as an athletic trainer through the Massachusetts Board of Registrations of Allied Health Professions or the appropriate board in the state where you will be working.
Click here for Athletic Training Technical Standards.
Program Mission and Goals: To matriculate students who are qualified health care professionals who are well educated and experienced in the management of health care problems associated with physical activity. Working cooperatively with physicians and other health care personnel, the program graduates will function as integral members of the health care team in secondary schools, colleges and universities, professional sports programs, sports medicine clinics, and other health care settings. The program will also educate students to facilitate the development and coordination of an efficient and responsive athletic health care delivery system that includes medical personnel, athletic personnel, individuals involved in physical activity, parents, and guardians.
The foundation of the program is the development of specified competencies in the following domains: risk management and injury prevention, pathology of injuries and illnesses, assessment and evaluation, acute care of injury and illness, pharmacology, therapeutic modalities, therapeutic exercise, general medical conditions and disabilities, nutritional aspects of injury and illness, psychosocial intervention and referral, health care administration, professional development and responsibilities. Through a combination of formal classroom instruction and clinical experience, our students will be well prepared to apply a wide variety of specific health care skills and knowledge within each of the domains.
Students who graduate from this program shall be able to:
- Demonstrate the cognitive and psychomotor skills delineated in the Competencies in Education.
- Display clinical skill and competence in the psychomotor skills identified in the Competencies in Education.
- Display ethical behavior in accordance with professional standards.
- Collect, interpret, and disseminate information in an effective manner.
- Display effective oral and written communication skills that are appropriate to the population being addressed.
- Appreciate the purpose of professional continuing education requirements and the methods available for obtaining them and the need for life-long learning.
- Recognize the athletic trainer's role in the present and emerging health care arena.
- Appreciate the need for science-based efficacy of our profession through ongoing research and publication.
- Respect and treat the patient as an individual, without regard to race, color, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, political, or religious affiliation.
Curriculum
The five-year athletic training program is designed for students who are interested in focusing on athletes and other physically active individuals. The hallmark of our program is that you begin with course work in emergency care, therapeutic exercise, and therapeutic modalities, and then apply this knowledge in a controlled environment early in your academic career.
You'll master basic professional skills in a series of three assessment classes that integrate emergency care, evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Your Typical Week
Monday: Learn about the knee joint.
Tuesday: Go into the cadaver lab and see it.
Wednesday: Hear a more detailed lecture.
Thursday: Evaluate the joint in a skills lab.
Friday: Participate in a concluding lab.
By the fall of your junior year, you will have acquired most of the skills you need to function as an entry-level athletic trainer. Then you spend the next three semesters mastering these skills through your affiliations, co-ops, and a senior field experience.
Experiential Learning
We offer both co-op work and clinical affiliation experiences.
You will do three 6-month, full-time co-ops during your five years, the first of which will come at the beginning of your sophomore year.
Your co-op job could be at an outpatient orthopedic clinic, college, university, or high school sports medicine/athletic training facility, professional sports team, hospital or industrial facility or any related setting where your skills as an athletic trainer can be used.
You will also complete four clinical affiliation courses that begin during your sophomore year.
During your clinical affiliations you are under the supervision of licensed athletic trainers. During your clinical education experiences, you will have the opportunity to practice skills learned in the classroom and laboratory settings and apply them to actual patients. Clinical affiliations are located at one of our affiliated clinical sites in and around Boston.
Co-op vs. Clinical: Northeastern's athletic training education program offers you both co-op work and clinical affiliation experiences. You will do three 6-month co-ops during your five years, the first of which will come at the beginning of your sophomore year. You will also complete four clinical affiliation courses that begin during your sophomore year.
During your clinical affiliations you are under the supervision of licensed athletic trainers. Clinicals allow you to explore your professional strengths and address the areas that are more challenging for you. During your clinical education experiences, you will have the opportunity to practice skills learned in the classroom and laboratory settings and apply them to actual patients. Clinical affiliations are located at one of our affiliated clinical sites in and around Boston.
A co-op is a full-time work position that allows you to practice your job search and interviewing skills, function as an employee in a health-care organization, and learn the business of health care while you gain clinical experience. Your co-op job could be at an outpatient orthopedic clinic, college, university, or high school sports medicine/athletic training facility, professional sports team, hospital or industrial facility or any related setting where your skills as an athletic trainer can be used. On co-op, you will learn:
- How to communicate with other health-care professionals and with patients
- How the health-care system works
- The importance of teamwork in health care
- Conflict resolution and ethics
- Time Management
Contact Info
Athletic Training
301 Robinson Hall
Tel: 617-373-5355
j.musler@neu.edu