I am an ATHLETIC TRAINER

3/20/2014

Over the course of the profession Athletic Trainers have been called trainers, so what does that really mean? According to Merriam-Webster a trainer is “a person who teaches or coaches athletes or animals: a person who treats animals.” I don’t know about the other Athletic Training professionals, but I don’t see my daily practice as training and treating animals. There is also the entire conversation explaining that you don’t just help the athletes get stronger, and that you are not a personal trainer.

The National Athletic Training Association defines Athletic Training as “healthcare professionals who collaborate with physicians." Athletic Trainers provide services in injury prevention, emergency care, clinical diagnosis, therapeutic intervention and rehabilitation of injuries and medical conditions.

Then what is the big deal of calling ourselves Athletic Trainers and not trainers? Athletic Trainers must graduate from an accredited bachelors or master’s program, pass a Board of Certification exam, and complete continuing education requirements. These requirements are what we should use to push the term Athletic Trainer and not trainer. We are educated healthcare professionals who treat and prevent injuries and treat medical conditions. The next time your team asks for a “trainer” stand proud and introduce yourself as an Athletic Trainer.

Austin Krause, LAT, ATC

Not a horse trainer

12 Comments

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We are graduate students in the Indiana State University Post-Professional Athletic Training Education Program.

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Emilie

3/20/2014 03:30:05 am

The other day at practice, the coach said, "Hey, "trainer". I turned around and said to him, "My name is Emilie and I am an Athletic Trainer". What has happened to you and how did you handle it?

Michael

3/20/2014 06:28:29 am

I think we all need to get in the habit of correcting people when they call us trainers. Some people do not realize that there is a drastic difference and if we remind them, they will catch on!

Jackie

3/20/2014 01:35:47 pm

I absolutely agree! We can't just go along with being called, "trainers." I usually politely correct them. When they ask, "Are you a trainer?"...I reply, I am an Athletic Trainer. Sometimes I joke and say trainers care for race horses and I don't do that.

3/20/2014 04:43:49 pm

I am an Athletic Trainer. I am young and introduce myself as athletic trainer BUT I have never understood the constant uproar over our name and for some reason WE are the only ones that fuss about it. It almost discredits us as a profession because we sound like whiney children always saying things like "that's not my name" or "don't call me that". We had the opportunity to change our name (to something I believe identified our profession a bit more correctly) to Athletic Therapist but everyone seemed to want to stick to Athletic training and continue the fight of our name. Seriously, WE want to call ourselves healthcare professionals but don't want to "group" ourselves with OTs and PTs whom everyone identifies immediately as a healthcare professional. Also, we call all types of physicians and veteriarians "doc" and many other professions have their own nicknames and you never hear them correcting you by saying "I'm not just a doctor. I'm an Orthopedic surgeon". The next time someone is casually talking and says "trainer" or "training room" stay calm, it's not worth the stress. Everyone knows and what they mean when they say that. No, you are not in a situation where someone is confusing you for a personal trainer or horse trainer. They are likely coming to see you to evaluate an injury or turn in some paperwork. Besides, people hate to be corrected all the time and you don't want to become "that guy." Again, call yourself, introduce yourself, and write it outside your office as Athletic Trainer or Athletic Training Clinic just stay calm if someone gets it wrong. I just wish I could go a week without seeing someone post or talk about "Athletic trainer not trainer." Stop sounding like children.

Denny

3/20/2014 06:19:39 pm

Michael,

I don't perceive whining is portrayed in the author's writing at all. I think the take home message is about being your own advocate in educating the public about our name, and be proud of the profession. As someone who works in a clinic setting and have worked in summer conference services, hosting camps ranging from 100 people to 2000 people for several years, I know that a lot of people still don't know our roles in society. Even the casual term "trainer" is still misunderstood due to its ambiguity. I take it that perhaps you had some unfortunate experience, which causes you to have such a strong negative reaction toward this post. I believe that educating people does not equate to being rude or being "that guy" that corrects people all the time. There are many ways to bring about awareness and advocacy. So let's not waste our time and energy in complaining about people who complain, and start thinking of solutions in bringing about the change that we want to see!

Kristen

1/18/2016 11:38:33 pm

THANK YOU! Coming from someone who is a friend of many ATs, I appreciate this so much. I nearly get my head bit off if I say 'trainer' around them. It's like an abbreviation, I obviously don't mean horse trainer so I don't understand the need to be pissy over it.

Kendall

3/21/2014 02:13:00 am

I work in a high school and my first year here people always said
'trainer" but I was too afraid to correct them. Now in my 4th year not only do I correct people but my athletes, athletic training students and even some coaches do the correcting for me. You just have to be diligent and respectful and in return you will get the respect and people will call you Athletic Trainer.

3/21/2014 02:18:08 am

I apologize if I sounded like I was writing directly to the author. I was writing more in general to all "whining" ATs. Again, I'm young, and since I stepped foot into the profession in college this issue hasn't settled. And as far as bad experiences, the only "experience" I have had is, like I said, the fuss over our own name from our own people. I truly feel like we are the only ones that have a problem with being called "trainer". And if I may be honest, if someone has a nickname for you it should be taken as a compliment in that they are comfortable with you and know you are a part of their everyday life. I don't think anyone has ever tried to be disrespectful to me simply by calling me "trainer". And again, I agree with the author in that I call myself and introduce myself as Athletic Trainer but I'm not going to complain on social media each time someone calls me "trainer". The change will come, eventually. We see ourselves in the news more and more doing great things and every year during 2-a-days we see multiple stories of athletic trainers preventing heat illness and dealing with concussions. I'll compliment the authors by saying I'm glad you have a blog that people can come to and have discussions (or arguments) over issues in our profession. Thank you, guys, keep up the good work!

Michael N.

3/21/2014 02:59:15 am

I think the issue with people calling us "trainer" is not that we get hurt about it...the issue is them misunderstanding our profession and our overall qualifications. When people hear "trainer" they often think of personal trainers or strength coaches, not allied health care professionals. By correcting them, we can educate the person on why we prefer to be called Athletic Trainers. If they really need to yell for help they can simply call us by our first name...

3/21/2014 03:37:03 am

I agree with this. But we shouldn't have to educate people over our name, but we continually have to because our name doesn't make much sense with our job description. This is why I was surprised of the results when we had the vote over the name change (I think it was a year ago). I feel the whole reason for the vote was because our name didn't accurately depict our job description. Because, to me, we aren't trainers or even athletic trainers if you want to take the words literally. I mean, I went to school with physical and occupational therapists. It was OTs, PTs, and ATs under the same department but our T was different. As for the first name thing, I believe that is more disrespectful than "trainer". Athlete's should not call their coaches or teachers by their first name. I guess my point I'm trying to get down is we had the opportunity to change. We voted. We kept it. So now we must continue our education over our name. I feel like if we would have changed to Athletic Therapist the lay person would instantly understand "Oh, this person must specialize in therapy for athletes." Yes, I know we do more than that but it is a more accurate depiction than Athletic trainer. Which brings the thought of "Oh, this person must train athletes or be a personal trainer. I'm not sure." You see, it's kind of our own fault. A good tip would be for the AT who works with schools or teams to just have a little talk with your athletes at the end of one of the first practices of the year. Introduce yourself and explain what you will do for them and just put in a quick word about what they should call you. Whether it be Mr,/Mrs/Ms, Coach, AT or whatever.

Samuel

3/21/2014 03:56:19 am

I have to agree with Michael on the fuss over what people call us. Do the officials on the field get angry and correct coaches, players, fans, and even sometimes us, when we call them "ref"? There is only one referee on the field, yet we call all of them that name. I particularly enjoy the nickname my kids have used over the years: Medic. I was joking with them that the way they screamed for help with even a cramp that it felt I was in a war movie. I told them, "Why not just scream, 'MEDIC!'" So, they did, and it has stuck. It's only a name, so let it go and just enjoy the opportunity to do what we love and continue helping our athletes.

Justin

3/25/2014 05:21:08 am

Great thoughts by all. As a member of State, District, and National committees within the profession, I have heard lots of dialogue about this. As President Thornton stopped by me NATA committee a couple of years ago in St. Louis, our committee was charged with discussing the "name change". My comment was that our name "Athletic Training" is where we started and I felt that we should protect our heritage and not change the name. I felt that our name does not define us, but rather what we do and how we do it does. We simply need to make sure that regardless of what people call us that we do what we do as well as we can and that's what people will recognize and remember. Yes, education on our name is important, but not enough to go out of our way to correct in every situation. There is a time and place for everything. I appreciate the passion that everyone has on this topic, even if not everyone agrees. At the end of the day, we are all on the same team, and what a GREAT team it is! Keep up the GREAT work!

I am an ATHLETIC TRAINER

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