Working as a Graduate Assistant (GA) Athletic Trainer
is a great stepping stone to becoming a professional in the sports medicine field.
It allows young professionals to further develop his or her clinical skills, as
well as gain experience and confidence as a newly certified athletic trainer. However,
does the excessive workload and stress lead to burnout and work-family conflict?
GA Athletic Trainers are required to balance clinicals,
school, family, and teaching undergraduate-level courses. A typical work day
for a GA in charge of a sports team can consist of rehabilitation in the
morning, administrative work, teaching classes, pre-practice treatments,
practice, post-practice treatments, miscellaneous job duties, and taking
graduate level classes.
According to the research conducted by the
University of Connecticut (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22892414),
GA’s work an average of 40-hours per week, which is the same as a full-time
employee. They found that if GA’s continue to work full-time work weeks plus
maintain a rigorous academic load, it will eventually lead to burnout;
especially for graduate assistants with multiple responsibilities.
For some, a graduate assistantship experience can be
a very stressful time for a young athletic trainer, but the value of the
experiences they receive in both the clinical setting and the academic classroom
is priceless. When it comes time for graduation, graduates are more prepared
for the real world and will also have received their Master’s degree. According to a study done by the NATA, 70% of
certified athletic trainers have their Master’s degree. As an allied healthcare
profession, we pride ourselves on being highly educated and knowledgeable
professionals.
Being an ex-college athlete, its hard to imagine how long of days athletic trainers really put in to each days; but once I got into graduate school and playing softball at Tarleton State, I got a better taste by seeing athletic trainers early in the morning for workouts, teaching classes in the morning, at practice during the day,and then once more at night for our night classes. I could not imagine the days and hours athletic trainers put into each day to better themselves. But it is admirable to see them before workouts each days and the last ones to leave at the end. Work ethic, drive, support of their athletes, and hope for their future is what makes GA athletic trainers so important to athletics at any school. So much is put into every one of their days, it is obvious why the burnout rate is so high but for those who stay motivated, the prize at the end is so grand!
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of responsibilities that Graduate Assistants have. It seems that there is always something coming up and just not enough time to get everything done. Being a G.A. myself I know that I work more than what I get paid. The experience gained while being a G.A. is very beneficial for my future career but I can only imagine that after a while I may get burned out with everything that goes on. I know I am fortunate to be in a more relaxed field then Sports Medicine. Being an athletic trainer can be stressful for many reasons especially the fact that players hold you accountable to diagnose there injury and for you to be correct 100% of the time. Plus having a school load and needing to find time for your family can be very hard to balance. I can see why athletic trainers can get burned out early from everything they have to do on a day to day basis. I know money isn’t everything but I believe that if athletic trainers made more money than what they currently do, it might help athletic trainer’s retention rates.
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