The phrase, “Athletic Trainer, Not Trainer,” became a very common saying among many of the Athletic Trainers I had met when I first became interested in the profession in the fall of 2010.  However, as a young professional in 2015, I still hear athletes refer to me as a “Trainer” and that I work in a “Training Room/Clinic.”  Even some students in the universities at which I have studied and worked referred to the clinic as a “Training Room.”  Athletes know to use correct terminology around me, they know I will correct them mid-sentence if they even begin to refer to me as a “Trainer” and not an “Athletic Trainer.” I will say to them “So what kind of trainer am I? A monkey trainer?  Well then, that would make you a monkey.”  I do so not to be snooty, but because this phrasing detrimentally affects the profession of Athletic Training as a whole.

I used to wonder why I had to explain the profession to everyone who asked me “so what do you do?” since I had already done so many, many times, but reflecting it makes sense that the terminology of “Trainer” is still prevalent since many in the profession refer to us as “Trainers.””  Since there doesn’t seem to be a change in the Name of Athletic Training in the near future, we need to own up to our name!  With television programs like the Biggest Loser, the term “Trainer” has become synonymous with personal trainers and other fitness professionals.  We can no longer call ourselves “Trainer” if we want to be known as medical professionals.  Athletes in professional sports refer to their “Trainers” as those who take care of their injuries.  Who tells them what to say? I know of at least one professional sports organization which has signs in their Athletic Training Clinic that say “What happens in the Training room, stays in the Training room.”  I have also seen many high schools utilize placards identifying “Training Rooms.”  Both of these examples subtly undermine the advocacy efforts which every single Athletic Trainer participates in when they educate a stakeholder about the difference between an Athletic Trainer and a Trainer.

I want commend ESPN sports commentators like Erin Andrews for announcing individuals on live television as “Athletic Trainers” or “Athletic Training Staff” and not simply “Trainer” or “Training Staff.”  I think many athletic trainers share the joy when someone gets it right, especially on national television.  Social media can be a valuable tool to advocate for our name and demonstrate we are health professionals, if it is done RESPECTFULLY and POLITELY.   Often times we want to jump to correct television personalities and don’t think about our approach.  This can come off as disrespectful and undermined our efforts.  A positive example of educating a television personality occurred a couple weeks ago when a colleague of mine in the Post-Professional Program here at ISU Tweeted to reporter Shelly Smith when we inadvertently used the term “Trainer” during a competition.  My colleague’s tweet was: “For future reference, it’s Athletic Trainer.  Trainers don’t get to make return to play calls.  Athletic Trainers do.  Thanks.”  Three weeks later my colleague received a tweet back from Ms. Smith in which she stated “I said Athletic Trainers yesterday thanks to you!”

We need to continue to advocate for our profession, to our athletes, our coaches, to Athletic Training students, and to the general public: It’s Athletic Trainer, not Trainer.

-Nicolás Merritt, ATC, LAT

The NATA recently released their 2014 salary survey results with some surprising figures. This survey is intended to provide data to their members in order to better negotiate with current and prospective employers. The results showed that member’s average income with a Bachelor’s degree was $49,719, up from the 2011 average income of $46,176, which if you take inflation into consideration, is only a 2.3% increase over a 3 year time span. As a young professional entering the profession, money has never been at the root of my career choice. I chose the profession of athletic training because I wanted to help individuals get back to what they love to do. But this did lead me to think about to what extent do athletic training professionals sacrifice pay to do what we love?

There are many employers that are willing to pay athletic trainers low salaries because they know there are athletic trainers who are willing to accept a lower paying salary in order to do what they enjoy or work in a particular setting. Accepting jobs that pay us for less than what we are worth ultimately hurts our profession.  It also hurts our athletic training colleagues who are searching for a job and those looking to negotiate a higher salary.  Employers not only utilize data from the NATA Salary Survey, but they also use organizational data to determine what ‘fair pay’ is within their individual organization. If we continue to accept lower paying jobs, we are not only lowering our local organizational value, but also our national value.  This hurts both the colleagues we work with every day and those athletic trainers who we may have never met.

As practicing athletic trainers, we are responsible for the growth and sustainability of our profession; not the NATA, not the BOC, and not CAATE.  All of these organizations support causes important to the profession, but ultimately the buck stops with each and every single one of us.  If we fail to make to make athletic training an appealing profession for the best and brightest aspiring professional (part of which includes salary), athletic training will fail to meet our potential in the modern healthcare community.

In 2010, Yahoo Financial listed athletic training as the 4th worst paying college degrees. This is interesting, considering that the athletic training job outlook for 2012-2022 is expected to rise by 19%, faster than average when compared to all other professions. These two data points demonstrates something we all know: money isn’t the main reason we chose to enter the profession.  However if you attend any professional meeting in athletic training, you will most certainly hear complaints that athletic trainers are underpaid and overworked. It is a great to see the average salary on the rise, but we still are not adequately compensated for our skills or time. The most critical mistake that we can make is to sell ourselves short. The next time you find yourself in the position to negotiate your salary, make sure your employer recognizes your value and set the bar high. 

-Ethan Roberts, LAT, ATC